The making of a Manurhin

rubber bits

2012-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

There are a number of rubber bits on this bike; predominantly chassis, body, seat mountings (and an internal mud-flap) - and mine are all a bit tatty, so I decided to replace them with new.

As seems to be normal around here lately, the industrial rubber suppliers I used to know of (15 years ago) are either no longer in existence or gone all too-big-for-a-trade-counter. But it wasn't long before Google linked me through to Central Rubber & Gaskets Ltd. John at central rubber was great. He had exactly what I needed and he cut it to size too (And he can diecut gaskets to order too.... which could be very useful to know about in future)

And while we are on the subject of Rubber, we have an interesting conversation going on at the moment on the Manurhin Scooter Interest Group member site. The rear suspension on the Manurhin and DKW Hobby is nothing more than compression of a couple of 65mm diameter rubber blocks. Mine appear to be in good condition..... but how would I know if they were as good as they were on the day they they were made? How would anyone know if they had the same cushioning properties today as they had when they were designed? Does rubber age-harden?
I'm looking forward to taking my scooter for a ride to see just how these rubber perform. But if I don't like the ride quality..... What can I do about it?

Getting there!

2012-03-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

All coming together.... almost

2012-03-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

Its time to start assembling things. All the parts are painted after-all so presumably its now just a case of bolting it all together right? Well, almost.
Over the past few months I've been scouring the web for all the bits that were missing from my bike, and I've been excited (and lucky?) to discover them from all sorts of places and sellers. I have quite a large box now of 'parts'. It all feels a bit Johnny Cash

However, now as I start to put bits together, Im discovering that things are not all as simple as I had hoped. For instance;

From 4 different sources;

one wheel,
one set of forks,
one speedo cable,
one speedo drive

...... and guess what? It doesn't all quite fit!

I'm not sure if its the speedo cable that is too short or if I've got the wrong style of speedo drive?

And then at the other end;

I've had not one, but two good-as-new spare rear brake cables in my parts box for months now, and a replacement rear wheel ready to go, but its only been this weekend when I've tried to marry them together..... and guess what? it doesn't quite fit!

I have the old cable from my bike as a pattern so I can confirm that the lengths of my new cables are correct, and so are the ends, and I even thought the adjuster end was the same until, i went to screw it into the brake back plate. It would appear that the thread on my new adjusters are finer than the thread on my original adjuster and the back plate - unfortunately the cables have soldered/crimped ends so I cant simply disassemble and swap the adjusters

So what have I learnt? well, nothing really. I've known for ages now that DKW and Manurhin clearly didn't have a master collaboration plan! They were either extremely relaxed in their standards offices, or fabulously creative on the shop floor. Either way, we can never assume that any part is compatible with another.

Body Paint

2012-02-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

I like to live dangerously. Some people might say I was a fool to get all my body bits painted before making a dry-fit assembly first. But I am;

Impatient
Apt to lose motivation in a project if its not showing signs of progress
Concerned that summer is on its way and I don't want to miss riding my Manurhin in the sunshine
A true believer in "Done is better than perfect" - Scott Allen
A true believer in "Relax, everything will work out OK"

And so a few weeks ago I focused my garage time on panel bashing, welding and grinding to get the body work good enough for powder-coating. I make no apology for "Good Enough" being good enough for me. That done, I sent all my body parts (sounds a bit Frankensteinish) to Redditch Shot Blasting - Not even knowing if it would all fit back together again once I'd spent lots of money on paint :-/

That was 4 weeks ago. Today Dave the powder-coater phoned me to say the job would be complete this evening but he wanted to check with me about the quality of the finished job;

"Do you know that the surface of the parts you bought in is a bit wrinkly and pitted? We can build up the powder in some areas to cover some marks, but some of the marks aren't going to be disguised by powder coating alone" he said.

"Thats OK" I said, "I know its a bit tatty, but I don't want to spend time or money on making it perfect. It's what you might call a 'three-foot bike' - It'll look great from 3 feet away"

There was a pause at the other end of the phone "Well...... maybe a 10-foot bike" said Dave dryly

And so it was a little intrepidation that I drove over to collect my parts tonight.
I shouldn't have worried. It all looked fabulous :-) Yes there are wrinkles and dents (actually, far more than I thought there would be - there is nothing like a shiny surface for showing off what you couldn't feel with your hands...... maybe I should have taken my welding gloves off first ;-)

So for £240 (plus that damn VAT) I now have all my bodywork ready to go. In theory I could have this looking like a scooter relatively quickly - whether she runs like a scooter should is another question.

In the traditional way of all my projects, I proudly displayed the painted body parts around the house for my wife to admire. She wasn't impressed. Maybe its not her colour?

I'm trying to convince her that a Manurhin body cowl with a glass top would make a lovely coffee table...... she hasn't said 'No' :-)

Engine air-duct

2012-02-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

A very obvious missing part from my engine is the air ducting that fits over the cylinder head and directs the cooling air flow blown by the magneto/flywheel. Obvious as it is, not having it doesn't actually stop you from running the engine and so when I was working to get the engine started, I didn't really worry about it - and as I say, it didn't stop me from getting the engine fired up.

However, having seen the video of me running the engine, a fellow Manurhin owner, Francois, in France warned me that because of the poor cooling design of the engine, you should always run the engine with the "complete air-intake and starter casing", or else the engine can over heat and seize.

Since then, Ive been playing with the idea of either sourcing an original one or fabricating my own. I've seen them come up now and again on eBay and Leboncoin.fr, but with an eye on my budget I decided that I'd make one to see me right until I was rich enough to buy an original one one-day.

So armed with 3 photos of an original duct, some cardboard, and a roll of masking tape I went about mocking up a pattern. Generally speaking, its a pretty simple cone that bolts to the starter case; pretty simple that is until you get to the shaping required to avoid fouling the carburetor. It wasn't long before I was getting a bit frustrated with tight internal bends and I wondered if it might actually be a better idea to bite the bullet, spend some cash and buy the real thing. So there and then, in the garage, I got onto eBay (what? you don't have wifi in your garage??) and found the chap selling a duct in Germany. His was a little beaten up but at £20, not a bad price I thought. I was just about to click to buy when I saw the message "Item does not ship to GB"! What? What's GB done to deserve this mean snub?

Well that was it - The challenge was on. I would have a duct in spite of someone refusing to sell me one.

A few hours later, I was the proud (?) owner of a good-enough air duct. It should certainly see me good to start with, and with a quick powder-coat, shouldn't look too silly either

Oh Bugger - again

2012-02-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

I am always on the lookout for Manurhin parts (there are a lot of missing parts that still need sourcing for my bike), and one way of doing this is by setting a global 'saved search' on eBay for 'Manurhin'. Once I've filtered out all the hits for revolvers, CNC machines and meat processing machines, I sometimes get lucky and find an item or two of interest.
Sometimes I even see a complete Scooter come up for sale too. And now and then they are actually in the UK! But rarely (if ever) do you see a Manurhin Scooter come up for sale in the UK at a bargain price - So I was rather excited to see one come up at a starting price of £100.

The chance of such a bargain seemed to cloud my better judgement. I didn't seem to pay much attention to the sellers clear description "Manurhin hobby scooter believed to be 1960 some parts missing engine runs fine body in fair condition no v5 requires some tlc" and nor did I look too closely at his 3 blurry photographs. I was simply motivated by a bargain price [On reflection, I have realised that I can no longer moan at my wife for her ridiculous behaviour of buying shoes she doesn't need simply because they were 'such a good price']

To cut a long story short. Bidding began on this Manurhin and a fellow Manurhin-renovating friend of mine suggested that we bid for it together as there might be bits we could both salvage off it. Brilliant. I started to bid with a vengeance. And we 'won'. We were now the proud owners of "some parts missing... body in fair, condition no v5, requires some tlc" for the bargain price of £120.21
I was very excited (and I still hadn't looked at those blurry photos properly)

I took a van down to collect the Scooter. I arrived in the dark. The seller was a nice chap; Into scooters, and had come across this one as part of a trade-in (he had no history of this bike and was selling it now because he "wasn't into large scooter wheels" - in his mind scooters should all have Vespa like 10 inchers). He was into stock-car racing and so had originally fancied it as a matt black slick thing - I wasn't concerned about the colour, but the external petrol tank modification seemed a bit odd. As we loaded it into the back of the van, and I noticed that the wheels and handlebars weren't original, my heart began to sink.

Despite there being no starter mechanism, the seller claimed that he last started it with the aid of an electric power drill, and went on to inform me that if i ran with if fast enough I could bump start it! hmm!
There were still a couple of parts on this basket-case that I and my friend could still make use of, so I handed over the cash, and as the cheery seller waved me goodbye he (genuinely I think) claimed "You've got a lot for your money there mate!" hmm!

So when I got home I parked the new addition to my garage up in the corner and tried to forget about it. Mainly to forget my embarrassment for being so foolish in not either walking away from it, or negotiating a price more reflective of its worth.

A few weeks have passed now, and I don't feel so bad about myself and so I went and did a 'stock-take' of useful / valuable parts. After my friend and I have taken the bits we both want, I think we are left with a little collection of eBayable bits that might just about claw back our 'investment';

Aluminum footrests
Leg-shield "Hobby" badge
Huret speedo
Frame and rear suspension
Some body panels
Floor rubbers
A bunch of ancillaries (that sometimes come up individually on eBay at quite high prices)

So Ive learnt some interesting lessons out of this experience;

Irrational spending isn't just a 'shoe' thing
There is no such thing as a 'bargain'
One mans "Requires some TLC" is another mans "Sleepless nights"
People don't take blurry photos for no reason

But that all said; It might have been a heap of crap, but I still felt amazingly excited to have another motorbike in the back of my van :-)

How to register an old scooter

2012-02-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

My bike was found in a barn stripped of all its registration identification - a suspected victim of number-plate trading. I should be thankful I suppose that the frame number and engine number still existed - I've heard of people grinding those off as well.
So how do I go about getting it verified as an original motorcycle and applicable for an age-related number-plate?

Old Bike Mart ("The autojumble in your armchair") has a fascinating column called "Unearthed" in which motor historian Mike Worthington-Williams helps readers research the origin of their strange and unusual rusty old motorbikes. I emailed Mike a while back and asked if he might be able to help with the authentication of my scooter. It took me a little while to get round to it, but in the end I collated 16 pages of 'evidence' that I could send to Mike that might help him verify that my scooter is indeed original and give it an official age.

Mike is the Chairman Emeritus of the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain (UK Chapter), so I guess if anyone knows, Mike knows. His service costs a very reasonable £30, and he can turn a response round in 24 hours!
And so last week I received from Mike an official (recognised by the DVLA) dating certificate for my Manurhin scooter. I was rather pleased. My scooter is now officially recognised as a 1958 model.

But now what? How do I apply for a registration number? Well Mikes service also includes a step by step guide to the application process. In essence;
1. Sign a V55/5 (Mike had filled this all in for me)
2. Get the bike MOT'd and insured. [and this is the bit that surprised me - I can get the scooter MOT'd and insured by using the frame number as the VIN number]
3. Fix an appointment with your local Vehicle Registration Office. Take along all your documents, including the dating certificate, and they will issue an age-related registration number (for a fee of £55)

Sweet. As simple as that. So all ive got to to do is get the bike on the road and to an MOT center....... hmm not quite so simple.

Handlebars and chroming

2012-02-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

It comes to something when your mind starts wander to the blingy bits. Who would have thought 8 months ago when I took on this basket-case that I'd ever get round to thinking about chrome!

My handlebars are pretty tatty. The chrome is long gone and at some time they've been painted with silver paint. And now the rust is coming through. Of all the bits on this bike, the handlebars probably need the least functional rework. I could put them straight back on the bike as they are and they would work perfectly well as they were designed...... but something in me makes me think they need to look good too.
And so I went in search of a polisher and chromer.

20 years ago, I worked in a business that used a lot of polishers and chromers. There were at least 3 companies I used to work with that were within 5 miles of my house. I set off to say hello to them again. But I should have guessed; a lot of change has happened in Birmingham in the last 20 years, and the companies I used to know are no longer there.... not even the buildings! In their place now are shops, apartments, and building developments for "the creative industry". The face of Birmingham is changing rapidly. Gone is the heavy industrial heritage, welcome the clean & tidy "creative industry"

And so I opened my search out a little wider and thankfully Dudley and the black-country are still hanging in there with their traditional industrial skills.
I phoned a couple of platers and without even seeing my handlebars they reckoned about 60 quid! But someone suggested I go and see Castle Chromers (right close to the castle in Dudley). From what I saw of their unit, they certainly looked like they knew what they were doing (lots of classic car parts around the place)
I showed them my handlebars (and I also had my headlamp bezel with me too). Without hesitation, the response was £60. I tried to bargain with them but no joy. On reflection I suppose its about a right sort of price by the time you've paid a man for a couple of hours work - but sadly its well out of my budget - especially on a non essential job. But before I left the fella at Castle Chrome said "why not just buy a new handlebar?"

"Ridiculous" I mumbled as I drove away. "This handlebar is 60 years old. You cant buy a new one". As I drove home I happened to drive past Streetbike (not best know for its vintage parts). I'm not sure why I stopped, but I did. I felt a bit foolish walking in past all the superbikes and monster machines with my rusty 7/8" scooter handlebar. I dropped it on their spare parts counter and they pointed me to a rack of anodized coloured bars - not really what I was looking for. But then from behind the counter, one of the chaps bought out a chromed handle bar that looked remarkably like mine. Pretty much the same angles and rise - just a couple of inches wider (which I rather like)...... and they were £25. It was a no-brainer really. I could keep my original bars for when I was rich enough to get them renovated, but in the meantime I could have some shiny bars for 25 quid. As for the headlamp bezel, I can think on that for a while

building up the chassis

2012-01-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been ear-marked in my diary for many weeks. Two days to myself with no interruptions (other than the occasional running of family here and there). A good lump of time therefore to make significant progress.

This was the first time that I've had chance to look properly at the parts that I had powder-coated before Christmas - Unwrapping a newly powder-coated machine part is not a dissimilar experience to unpacking your new iPhone - it is a moment of excitement and wonder. I unwrapped 3 parts; the main frame, the rear swinging arm and the front forks - and decided that I should put them all together.

Rebuilding the front forks is quite fiddly - theres a lot of springs going on in there and I had to resort to a sash cramp to hold things in place while I screwed the end-stops into the fork tubes.
Fitting the rear swing arm and rubber suspension bumpers to the frame was pretty simple and non-eventful.
Fitting the front forks to the frame however was more hassle than I expected. First of all, the manual refers to all sorts of "compensation washers" in the assembly that I simply didnt have in the original parts that I had. Was this because they were never fitted in the first place or because someone had incorrectly serviced the bike in the past? I could only reassemble with the bits I had to hand but I tried to understand the logic of the assembly and be content with the way I was putting it all back together.
Holding loose ball-bearings together while assembling forks is always tricky but packing them into a good bed of grease helps - I also used a bungey-cord to hold the fork assembly in place while I fitted the top bearing nut. And talking of that top nut - why was it SO tight to screw down? I had it on and off many times to investigate why it felt so tight - it wasn't cross-threaded, and there was no thread damage or contamination - it was just bloody tight!

All in all a satisfying weekend with a real sense of progress

Servicing the Wheels

2012-01-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

I had thought initially that my new wheels were is such great condition (well they are by comparison to the wheels that came with my bike) that I would simply put them on the scooter as-is in order to get the machine up and running (and then overhaul them at a later date). However on closer inspection a couple of bearings were shot and so i decided to replace them all. All 5 bearings! 2 on the front wheel and 3 on the back (despite the fact that the spares manual only actually identifies 2 of them - it does illustrate 3)

As an aside here I was surprised / appalled to see that someone somewhere sometime had had need to whack (a lot) the rear wheel hub with a hammer. I wonder why? This meant that the lip of the bearing housing was damaged and I had to file and linish the lip out in order to create a clear exit for the bearing.

As always, removing the bearings wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. I had no cross-section drawing of the wheel hubs, so I wasn't quite sure what it was that held them in the right location other than a number of "interior" and "exterior" "stays" (overly complicated machined spacer tubes). It turns out that each bearing is pressed home to a lip, so driving the bearing through to extract it is not an option. I turned to google to ask "How to extract a bearing from a blind hole" and I wasn't keen on either of the three most common suggestions;
1. Weld a bead to the race
2. Force it out with hydraulic pressure of a grease gun
3. Buy a blind hole bearing puller
So in the end I thought I'd see if I could pull them out with a Rawl-Bolt. And with a little bit of heat here and there, I was delighted to find that the bearings came out without any fuss at all.

I bought new bearings for about £3 a piece. I opted for shielded (zz) bearings as some of the extracted ones were shielded one-side and there are no grease points down there in that quite harsh environment of splashing puddles and road grit

And so on to fitting the new bearings.
I am a big fan of freezing bearings to contract them before fitting so an overnight stay next to the frozen peas and oven chips was in order.
A little propane gas on the hubs to give them a little expansion and the bearings just dropped home (encouraged with a hammer) - simple

I was a little worried still about the state of some of the spokes - some of them appeared very loose and had certainly suffered at the hand of whoever it was that had beaten the rear hub with a hammer. It crossed my mind a number of times to maybe bite the bullet and get the wheels in for a professional overhaul, paint and re-spoke. However, when I inspected the spokes a little closer, it appeared that they were serviceable and I could simply tighten the loose spokes - I even attempted to 'tune' them to the same tension - I'm not sure I've done a perfect job, but I think I've done a good enough job in order to get the bike rolling (and maybe even MOT'd)

Is this home?

2012-01-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've been saving this little bit of the story for a while - just in case it came to a complete conclusion. It hasn't yet, but it still might. However, even without a full conclusion (yet) I think it is still a story worth telling.

I've always been a bit miffed that I have no historical documentation or information for my scooter, but on the other hand I have rather enjoyed the process of trying to uncover the facts about my bike. Initially I thought I might find a good lead through the still existing Manurhin Manufacturing organisation in France, but they so far have refused to answer any email I send them (surely there must be someone there who remembers 'Le bon vieux temps') And I thought I might have found a little enthusiasm from a company with a proud historical pedigree like FN Midhurst whose forefathers were once UK concessionaires for Manurhin Scooters, but alas once again, not even an acknowledgement from them.
And so I started to lose hope in finding people who might be interested in a little historical probing. Until that is, I started to look at repairing my seat pans.

Right from the beginning I was keen to see if I could get the engine up and running, and while I was working on this I stored all the body bits out of the way at the back of my shed. Once the engine was running I started to turn my attention to other bits (Im not sure why the seat pans were important at this stage), and it wasn't until I dragged the leg-shield out of the dark that I noticed a little decal on the inside that for some reason I hadn't consciously seen when I was taking the bike apart

This looked to me to be perhaps a sticker placed on the bike by either a service mechanic or even a dealer. Its Scottish address seemed to concur with my understanding of where the barn was that the scooter was discovered in by the chap I bought it from.

I wondered if Google might turn up anything on Doug Murray - and blow me! it did! :-)
I sent a speculative email to Murrays Motorcycles and had an immediate reply from Mr Gordon Murray

".......You have got the correct family but one generation on. My dad is Doug Murray but he closed his motorcycle business in 1967 and went into selling cars. Going by the address he must have sold that [my scooter] new or nearly new as he moved out of Hawkhill in 1962. He is 83 now........ "

Over the course of a few emails, Gordon went on to explain that he was still in touch with the shop forman and he thought that the old shop sales ledgers still existed somewhere. I was very excited. I wondered if chassis numbers might have been recorded, in which case I could trace my scooter.
Sadly Gordon hasn't been able to find these ledgers (yet) but he sounded very interested to help so I still keep my fingers crossed.
In the meantime, Gordon sent me a photo of his dads shop in its day, along with a little bit of historical context;

Note the Vespa and the Scootacar (which still exists in Dundee!)

"......There were 2 main motorcycle shops in Dundee in the 50's and 60's. Doug Murrays was the 2nd largest. George MacLeans was the biggest and sold Triumph,Norton,BSA etc etc. My dads shop had the 1st Honda & Yamaha franchise in Scotland. There were also a couple of smaller workshops. He was also the 1st Toyota/Daihatsu/Skoda car dealership in Scotland. People say he was ahead of his time as these were unheard of makes at that time. I remember that the Toyotas and Daihatsus had radios as standard which was not the norm. The picture of the shop was taken sometime between '56 and '62 but I am not sure exactly when. My dad always was one for the 'unusual'...... "

"Unusual"? This convinces me more than ever that this is where my Manurhin was originally sold..... Now if only I could reach out and find the young Scottish laddie who bought it!

I Got Wheels!

2011-12-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've just got back from a couple of weeks away for work (firstly in the US and then in Cambodia)
I am exhausted.
But not so exhausted to investigate a large package that had arrived for me while I was away.

It was 7 weeks ago when I spotted a pair of Manurhin Scooter wheels for sale on the French website www.leboncoin.fr - this was about the time when I was realising that my own rear wheel was incorrect. I contacted the seller and thereby started an epic story of email negotiations and logistics.
The seller - Morgan - was based near Lyon (mid France) and didn't speak English. And I don't speak French but together we managed to communicate quite effectively via email and Google Translate.

Morgan wanted 80 euros for the pair of wheels. Although I didn't really need another front wheel, his looked better than mine in the photos so I agreed at 80 for the pair. He also had a pair of aluminum footrests for sale too, but at another 80 euros I had to decline.
Now I spend most of my life in front of a computer - I consider myself "always online". Morgan, I suspect however probably isn't. Replies could sometimes be a few (several?) days coming. So it was with great delight when a few days later I received an email from Morgan offering me the footrests at a 'discount' price of 45 euros for the pair. I gratefully took the offer and we started the (lengthy) process of working out how to 1) get the wheels and footrests from Lyon to Birmingham, and 2) make the payment transaction

I had a quick look at courier prices from the likes of Fedex and DHL and these looked to be around £120-150 - this was going to be be an expensive pair of wheels!
And so I thought I'd try AnyVan, the online delivery auction site. Within hours of posting my need, I had my first offer to collect and deliver - £300. Over the next few days various couriers bid down the price to a far more sensible sub-£100.
In the meantime, I was trying to pay Morgan. I was keen to pay at least a deposit in order to secure the sale. Morgan doesn't use PayPal but would accept a cheque or maybe a bank transfer. We spent a good couple of weeks trying to find a mutually acceptable payment method, and at one stage when emails were particularly slow in coming I thought that maybe it was all off, he'd either sold them elsewhere or had simply got fed up with the hassle of it all.
In the meantime, back to the courier; Offers were down to £60 and I was ready to accept, but had to apologise to the bidders that I couldn't commit as I hadn't actually bought the items yet... in fact I didn't even know if they still existed for me.
It was driver 'swift1' (mark) who first suggested that he could do a pay on collection for me if it would help facilitate the process. Unfortunately Mark couldn't make the time window that I needed (but I should say now that Mark was a superstar in doing his best to try and make this work - and if I could I would give him 100% feedback based on his efforts alone), and so eventually I found 'philbfc' (Phil) who was equally enthused to do his utmost to help me.

Eventually Morgan responded to my email;
"Sorry i didn't have time to give you answers. There's no problem for manurhin wheels they are for you"
I was mightily relieved and followed with a flurry of activity to arrange money and dates (doubly complicated by the fact that I wasn't going to be around to pay on receipt when the wheels were eventually delivered to my house)

Between Phil and Morgan (while I was in Atlanta), they arranged a pay-on-collection at 11pm on Thursday evening as Phil was traveling through Lyon on his way back to the UK
That night I received the following email. It warmed my heart;

Bonjour

Le colis est partie hier soir .

Le règlement a bien été effectuer .

Je suis également contant que les pièces soit pour une personne passionner .

Je compte sur vous pour redonner vie a ces Pieces et les remettre en belle état .

Hésitez pas pour m envoyé des photos de votre projet .

J espère que le colis arrivera bientôt chez vous.

Amicalement

Morgan

Saturday just gone (while I was in Cambodia) Phil dropped the package off at my house, and today within 15 minutes of returning from a grueling 21 hours traveling halfway round the World, I actually touched the wheels that I had first inquired to buy 7 weeks ago.
I was delighted :-)
They might not be the colour I need for my bike, but I reckon they are in such good condition that I wont have to do anything to the wheels, tubes, tyres or hubs to get my scooter up and running.
What a great christmas present (to myself ;-)

Painted frame

2011-12-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since i posted any updates on my blog. This is partly because I've been so busy with work I haven't really had much time to get my teeth into any proper jobs on the bike. I have managed to grab a moment here and there to work on bits and pieces but until I have completed something it seems a little pointless to be writing about it.

However, in order to keep something rolling along, I did take my frame, front forks, rear swinging arm and a few ancillaries in for painting a few weeks ago. I was concerned that I might be being a little premature with this, but as the frame really didn't need much re-work, I thought getting it painted would at least be progress of some sort (and could be happening without my involvement while I was busy elsewhere)

I decided that I would get the scooter powder-coated (rather than wet-sprayed) as I am lead to believe that Manurhin scooters were indeed one of the earliest adopters of electrostatic powder-coating for motorcycles. As I had already used (and was very pleased with) Redditch Shotblasting for my powder coating when I was rebuilding my Vespa it was natural that I would go back to them. I phoned them up and arranged to drop the parts into them the following day. When I arrived at their unit in Redditch, Dave came out to meet me "Oh its you" he said, sounding a little miffed "I didn't realise it was you when we were talking on the phone"
I was a little taken aback by his reaction to seeing me, and I asked what he meant.
It turns out that Dave had read my blog about the Vespa rebuild and was a little concerned about the 'bad' press I had given him.
Well, my first thought was "Wow, someone actually reads my blog?!" but then I quickly panicked wondering what on earth I could have said that was bad. Not only do I try to avoid writing 'bad' things about people, but I thought I had expressed my delight with their work. I don't need to explain my writing here - but to cut a long story short, He was gutted because he thought I'd written a bad review about his company, and I was gutted because he had interpreted my writing as a bad review when actually it wasn't. Anyway, I think we are friends again and for the record I think Redditch Shotblasting do a marvelous job and I thoroughly recommend them (just remember that all good thing come to those who wait. I waited patiently this time for the job to be done (3.5 weeks) and once again, I was delighted with the end result)

I had initially decided that the frame should be black - I think all chassis' should be gloss black - but talking it through with Dave and looking at his very extensive range of colours, I changed my mind at the last moment and decided to have it coloured as near as damn it to the original colour of the bike - Maroon. I say original because as I have already discussed on this blog, I'm not 100% sure what the 'original' colour actually was.
As much as I like a black chassis, I am very pleased that I chose the Maroon in the end - it looks fabulous

Frustratingly - exactly the same as when I picked up the painted Vespa frame - I have to leave the Manurhin frame wrapped in its bubble wrap for a couple of weeks now while I jet off for work.
But at least I have something exciting to be getting on with over the Christmas holidays :-)

By the way - Did I mention that I think Redditch Shot-blasting and Powder-coating do a great job ;-)

Refocusing

2011-11-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

I had been feeling a little down recently over this project; Everything was broken and everything was costing me money. But I love being in my garage and I rather like the bike, so I couldn't bring myself to simply walk away from it.
It dawned on me that the bottom line was simply a TIME and MONEY problem. I was investing a lot of time in fixing things, and investing a lot of money in procuring things that I couldn't fix. And I felt that I could barely afford either. I was fairly happy to spend my spare moments fixing and repairing things, but I was beating myself up over the increasing costs and this was getting me down.

The other day, while resting against my bench and feeling a little weighed down by all the problems still to be overcome in this project, I started to wonder what would happen if I could let go of some of the constraints that I seem to have subconsciously imposed upon myself. As I thought about it, there appeared to be a number of them;

I must finish any project that I start. Anything else will be a failure on my part
I must get this scooter ready to ride to France next summer
I am obliged to 'restore' this scooter back to its original design and former glory
I must not spend more money on the project than I can expect to get back should I sell the bike

In the grand scheme of things this is not a terribly difficult project, and there is no reason why I couldn't get it finished in order to ride to France next summer - this is quite a motivating vision for me. However to achieve this, I suddenly realised that perhaps I have to stop (within reason) worrying about the cost - If I need bits, and someone has them for sale, perhaps I should stop fannying around and just buy them and press on with getting the job done.

It had an amazing effect on me; with this sudden clarity I really felt a weight come off my shoulders.

And I thought on. There is no way this scooter will ever be considered as "restored" to its original design, but there is no reason why it cant be 'good enough' as a resurrection from a barn-find grave.

And so with this new view on the project and being much more conscious of my self-imposed constraints, I feel once again motivated. I WILL finish this project and it WILL be 'good enough' to ride to France next summer :-)

Seats

2011-10-31T04:50:00.000-07:00

Seats?! I am a long way off needing seats for this bike. But I did need to remove them in order to investigate the state of the body/cowl (which surprisingly isn't too bad!)

I don't need to say much about the seats - the pictures say it all. Everything needs repairing

3 points of interest;
1. Who was the idiot who thought that 2 copper plumbing brackets would suffice as a repair for the front seat hinge? And how did the original steel hinge get broken in the first place?
2. What is that reference plate screwed to the underside of the drivers seat? Is this a Manurhin reference? I don't think so, but it looks like its been placed there with purpose.
3. Those foam cushions look to be original..... but have they been in a fire? they look/feel/smell charred.

Oh how I wish inanimate objects could talk

Wobble of confidence

2011-10-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

I felt really low about this project over the weekend. This really is a hopeless case. Every part of the bike is buggered, and it really isn't worth the effort to try and fix - it certainly isn't worth the financial cost.

I enjoyed working on the engine. That seemed like a worthy challenge - to try and bring the heart of a machine back to life. And once I had it up and running I was rather keen to see if I could put it into the frame and fix up some wheels and see it I could get it moving.
I managed to control my disappointment last week when I realised that my rear wheel was not original and needed replacing, and I pressed on with preparing other parts. However, there are only so many knock-backs a man can take

I had turned my attention to the front wheel and stripped the hub and brake assembly (which to this point I hadn't looked at closely) and as I removed the Huret speedo worm drive and found it to be smashed, my heart sunk and for the first time I questioned whether it was all worth while. There must be a point where a smart man would cut his losses and move on to more valuable things to do with his time and energy.

I didn't know wether to laugh or cry.
I walked away from it all for a while and went and did some gardening chores..... but eventually (inevitably?) I was drawn back to the garage.
Deep breath.
Press on.

I'm still not really sure about this project. I am fast exceeding my budget, and if I am going to have to replace every little part that some bodger in the past has fucked up then I will simply grind to a financial halt. I love tinkering in the garage, and so for this reason I shall continue to do what I can - but whatever I do, this project is certainly not a "restoration" - at most it will only ever a "resuscitation" - anything else simply isn't worth it.

Steering Lock

2011-10-31T04:01:00.000-07:00

steering lock - removing cross pin and clip

The Manurhin has a lock on the steering column - not for an ignition as might first appear (there is no ignition security key on a Manurhin) - its a steering lock. Allegedly there should also be a lock on the drivers seat to restrict access to the petrol tank - but I don't appear to have one of these.

Obviously, my scooter doesn't have a key for the steering lock. But fortunately the lock is not in the engaged position so the steering turns freely.
As I have been preparing the frame for powder-coating, getting the lock mechanism out seemed sensible even though I could probably get away with simply masking it off and leaving it in place. Trouble is, its a real bugger to get out without a key. I should have just left it, but it started to niggle me and I felt driven to investigate (especially as I wasn't prepared to spend what one locksmith quoted me to get it removed and fitted with a new key... £130!). Over the period of several days I kept returning to this little puzzle wondering what on earth could be keeping it from sliding out.

Fellow Manurhin owner Roy had already told me about his own experience with removing his steering lock which resulted in drilling it out. I was keen to avoid such destruction but was grateful to learn however that the lock is German-made by Neiman. You can buy Neiman locks on eBay (though I cant find one to my exact dimensions) so I did a google search for "How to remove a Neiman lock", and turned up a couple of forums discussing this very problem (it seems I'm not the only person to have bought an old motorcycle with no keys) Sadly though these discussions don't answer the problem completely so I was still in the dark as to how it operated.

marking where the restriction is.
Note there is no external pin or fitting here

The lock is very small; a mere 12mm diameter brass barrel and bolt, and it simply slides in a steel tube welded to the headstock of the scooter frame. After removing a spring clip and a cross pin, I could slide the lock assembly laterally back and forth within the tube by about 6mm, but there was a dead stop that was preventing the barrel from removing fully. Investigating with magnifying glass and mirrors down the headstock provided no clue as to what might hold the barrel in place - there was no obvious retention or lip.

To prove its free movement to myself I cut a long 3mm wide strip of Guinness beer can and carefully slid it between the brass barrel and the steel retaining tube. I was able to push this thin strip all the way along the tube until I could see it pop out in the headstock tube - there was nothing in its way. Withdrawing the strip, and repeating the process around the complete circumference of the lock barrel I was to discover that there was one place where (at about 1 O'clock) where the strip hit a restriction.

drilled out outer tube, and internal pin

The thing that puzzled me was that I could find no external evidence of a retaining pin and as the steel outer tube was no more than maybe 2mm thick, there surely wasn't going to be a stepped ridge. However, I was now very intrigued, and as much as I didn't want to do anything destructive, I decided to drill a 5mm dia hole into the tube at the place where I had deduced the restriction to be.

Sure enough, drilling a hole in the external tube at this point revealed a pin in the brass barrel that once removed (drilled with a 2mm drill) allowed the barrel to slide easily out of the outer tube.

Once out, all became clear.
This is an incredibly simple design. Simple but ingenious.
Once again, my assumptions about the engineering principles let me down; I had assumed that the outer tube was 1. simply a carrier or support for the lock mechanism - I would never have guessed that it was actually part of the lock mechanism, and 2. it was too small and skinny a piece of tube to have any integral machining done to it.

note the 2 grooves machined inside

A closer inspection inside this steel tube reveals that the inside wall has two machined grooves in it (remembering that this tube is 12mm ID with 2mm thick wall - this is an intricate bit of machining) and it is these grooves that the pin in the brass barrel/bolt engages with.
[apologies for the poor quality of photo - taken through a magnifying glass with flash - but hopefully you get the idea]

So I had settled my curiosity, and I can now send the frame off for powder-coating without fear of damaging the lock....... what a shame I damaged it by removing it :-(
I dont think I have done anything irreparable to the frame - though I am reluctant to weld that drill hole up now as this would certainly ruin the internal grooves. Even with this hole, If I find a replacement barrel/bolt, it should still operate properly.

perhaps this hole can simply become a jolly big greasing point.

Just in case anyone is ever after a replacement steering lock.....

Paint colour

2011-10-27T04:24:00.000-07:00

I am sure that thinking about paint colours at this stage of this project is a bit like trying to choose the name of your rock-band before you have your first rehearsal (How many times have I done that in my youth?! :-)

However, while I've been working on the chassis I have become curious about the paint colour.
According to documentation, the Manurhin Scooter was technologically advanced for its time, and not least for its production paint.
According (I know this is a tenuous link of accordings) to wikipedia; "According to Bonhams the MR 75 “was constructed to a high standard and must have been one of the first motorcycles to be painted electrostatically, a process commonly known as ‘powder coating’.

I've used powder-coating many times, most recently on my Vespa PX, and in my experience its very hard wearing and provides a nice thick even coat without need for priming and undercoating (as is necessary in conventional wet cellulose spraying) And its for this reason that I've started to become suspicious of what paint is on my scooter and therefore what the original colour might have been

Up until now I have unquestionably believed that the colour of my bike was "Maroon" - I understood this to be a standard production colour. A 'Motor Cycling with Scooter Weekly" magazine review of the "Manurhin 'Hobby de Luxe'"in December 1959 states;
"Colours available; Choice of red or Blue for de Luxe model; Green only for standard model"

I had assumed that my 'Maroon' was the same thing as their 'Red', but I have certainly seen more pillar-box red examples of Manurhins, so I may be mistaken in my assumption.
I think I would be right in saying that in general, pale blue and pale green are certainly original colours, but there are a good number of examples of red, maroon and pale yellow Manurhins out there. This is not the first example of model confusion that I've talked about in the Manurhin/DKW scooters, I'm starting to get used to the ambiguity now.

flaking paint on mudguard suggest a respray

But back to my scooter; the paint on the chassis (and body) is maroon, but is has an undercoat of what I was seeing as pale yellow. Maybe early powder-coating techniques required a 'primer' of sorts? Or has my bike been repainted at some stage? The external body has certainly had some respray work - this is evident in flakey paint in places - but never the less, this respray has tried to be faithful to a colour underneath.
The thing that troubles me is that if my chassis has been repainted then whoever did it, did a bloody good job because the maroon paint over the yellow has got into every nook and cranny of every component (would you really be bothered to paint the underside of the rubber suspension cups?) - its as if the maroon colour has been put on by dipping, or electrostatically painting. Has it been repainted or is the maroon-over-yellow a production process?

what is this colour under the maroon?
what is the colour? and what is it doing here?

So, I investigated further by literally scratching away at the surface. When I expose a large patch of the yellow under-colour and compare this to a pure white, I cant help but ask myself - is this yellow actually a pale green? Was my bike originally the beautiful pale green of the 'standard model' - check out the pictures of these two bikes in what I am assuming to be true reproductions of original colours

I'm rather confused about the whole thing. However, I have decided that I am certainly going to have the chassis and associated under-body components powder-coated in gloss black (in my opinion, chassis' should always be black. And black is cheaper to have powder coated than colour)
As for the body colour..... I have plenty of time to think this through :-)

Rear wheel

2011-10-26T04:07:00.000-07:00

Crikey, will the problems ever stop? I shouldn't be surprised really, nothing is ever straight forward on this scooter.
I've had a niggling suspicion for a while that my rear wheel was not as it should be, and now that I am starting to work on the chassis, I will be needing wheels shortly to stand it on. So I dug the wheels out of the shed.

Right from the beginning, I couldn't understand why the brake lever was on the opposite side of the hub to the chain sprocket - drawings showed them both on the same side of the wheel.

Now that I look more closely at my wheel, I see that it is totally different to what was designed (according to the parts manual)

In addition, I notice that the designed chain sprocket (they call this the 'chain crown' in the parts manual) has 56 teeth - my wheel has 32 teeth. Cripes! with a ratio like that my scooter must have run like a rocket! Perhaps my scooter had been make into a special racer?

The more I look at it, the more I think this is not the original wheel. I wonder what it came off? and why would anyone change it anyway?

At one stage I thought I might try and work with it (and fit a larger sprocket) but on closer inspection, I see its actually rusted through at the rim - I don't mind trying a bit of tricky welding, but I don't fancy risking a wheel failure, and so it looks as if I am in the market for a replacement rear wheel :-(

Now as chance would have it, I do happen to have a spare rear wheel hub and set of spokes (I bought these ages ago in a bundle of parts from a chap in France) So if push comes to shove, I could try and re-spoke a new rim..... but I'd still be in need of sprocket and brake assembly.

So I guess its fingers crossed now to find a complete rear wheel assembly.

Beltomatic safety switch logic

2011-10-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

I think I've assembled, fitted and wired up the safety switch correctly. And I can see the logic in how this switch works, but I don't think my logic matches with the logic of the owners manual.

My logic;
At rest, set the switch lever to touch the pulley so that the switch is open.
As the engine speeds up, the pulley moves away from the switch lever, and in doing so, the microswitch 'makes' (grounds to earth) effectively stopping the engine and letting the pulley slow down and come back out again to the switch, 'breaking' the earth and allowing the engine to start again

Owner manual logic;
At rest there should be a 3mm gap between the switch lever and pulley. That means the switch is 'made' (earthed). As the pulley speeds up so it draws away from the switch lever - in this way, as the pulley only ever pulls away from the switch lever, it never actually touches the switch??!!

For a detailed 'official' description (I assume its official, but I dont know where it was published) of how this switch is designed to work take a look at this document on the Manurhin Scooter Interest Group website. My interpretation of what I read is exactly as I describe in my logic above.... but I just cant see how the switch works in their setup.

The bottom line is that I think the switch lever should be touching the pulley when at rest. The guide wants a 3mm gap. What am I not understanding?

I am sure that I have got something wrong - I dont doubt that, and I look forward to someone making it all clear for me

Starting the engine

2011-10-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

I went to a scooter fair this morning in the hope that I might find that elusive bit of ducting that goes over the cylinder head. It was a wasted trip. Although the event was massive, it was a complete "Lambrespa" fest. Other than a completely knackered Zundapp Bella, there was not an unusual scooter bit to be seen.
So I dashed home determined to take one more step toward bringing a rare machine back to the world.

Now my engine is all mounted up on a test bench, it seemed only sensible to see if I could start her. I cobbled up a little fuel reservoir, and gave it a yank.
Doh! I yanked too hard and promptly yanked the starter rope right out. Boy, was I mad with myself. I obviously hadn't swaged the end-cap on the wire tight enough. Grrr, It wasn't a difficult job to do first time round, but it was a pain in the ass this time round as I would rather have been trying to start the engine.

Finally I was ready. Would it run?
Would it run!? First bloody pull!! :-)))

She stalled a couple of times, but restarted ok. There was heaps of white smoke (but I had purposely made an oil rich mix). Eventually however it refused to start. The carb was flooded and the cylinder soaking in fuel - I'm guessing the carb float is sticking, but who cares right now? She starts! And that is quite amazing when you consider its been made up of a load of different parts that have never worked together before.

I wonder when the last time was that this engine ran? its got to be at least 30 years ago. I am so amazed (and quietly delighted ;-)

Bench testing the engine

2011-10-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've rigged the engine up on a solid base so that I can start it without having to mount it in the frame.
And I've replicated the electrical circuit so that I could see if the power unit as a whole did what it was supposed to

So does it turn over alright? Yes it does! sweet and smooth :-)

Have I got a spark? Yes I do! looks bright and blue :-)

Does it run? Don't know yet, but feeling confident :-)

Sorting out the ignition

2011-10-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

This blimin' ignition is trying me. I seem to have heaps of information on all the variations of manurhin electrics, and yet so little on what my own should look like (all electrical wires and components had been stripped off my bike before I bought it)

After comparing schematics, reading various magazine articles (kindly sought out for me by fellow Manurhin owners) and deducing what I could of the windings on my magneto stator, I eventually came to the conclusion that my bike was designed to have an ignition coil. With the help of a fellow Manurhin owner, we found a French supplier of ignition coils as designed for the Manurhin, but after a few further enquiries, it appears that any old single cylinder 12v coil would do the job, so I popped over to Vale Onslow to buy one. While there I asked them about condensors and stator windings - I'd read a lot about them on forums, but I was keen to hear what the experts thought. After lots of sucking-through-teeth and general mockery for it not being off a proper motorbike, the general expert opinion was "just try it and see if it works"

So armed with a new 12v coil I set off home to "just try it". The circuit is pretty simple so there's not much to experiment with or get wrong.... so why did everything seem to be shorting to earth?

I come from the school of "if it aint broke, dont fix it", and so to this point I hadn't bothered to do anything with the breaker points other than clean the contacts - How foolish can I be? You'd have thought by now that I'd have learnt my lesson; Everything on this scooter is broken!
It wasn't until I had completely stripped the points down to the tiddliest of fiddly bit that I discovered that someone else at sometime in the past (presumably just after the last time it had run) had also stripped the points.... but reassembled them incorrectly. By simply getting a steel washer and an insulating washer in the wrong order, the whole unit was earthed and rendered useless.

Setting the points is dead easy - although the owners handbook does give a gap size (.016-.02 in) they helpfully also suggest "the thickness of a postcard" - so thats what I set them to.
More tricky was trying to work out where best to position the advance/retard - I reckoned a good guess would be 'in the middle'

so many 'little' things to do

2011-10-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've started to lose track of the order of things. I seem to have so many loose ends on the go at the moment.
I've been trying to get a few evenings of garage time in to try and make progress with this engine. I'd like to see if I can get it to run (I think that would give me a good boost to working on the frame and running mechanics)
There seems to have been lots of little time consuming (but not particularly interesting) jobs to be done. For example;

cleaning the carb air-filter

- fitting the wire rope to the pull start assembly. The manuals show a special tool for holding the recoil spring while fitting the rope. I'm not so sure its essential - I managed it ok.

and,
- repairing the perished carburetor rubber air-in pipe (which interestingly draws the fresh air in via the engine case - presumably to warn the air in advance) I used a gel super-glue in all the cracks - it seems to hold

New starter sprocket

2011-10-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

The starter engage-sprocket was heavily damaged on the engine that I bought. It was severely knocked out of line and had badly chipped teeth (someone suggested it looked like an idiot might have tried to free a seized cylinder by whacking it with a hammer and cold-chisel (another reason I was keen to get the crank-shaft balanced)
And so I was committed to repairing or remaking a new sprocket.

For some reason the sprocket on the flywheel was in two parts (were they designed as pressed pieces 'laminated' together?). I decided to make my new one in one piece - 7.5mm thick steel plate.

A couple of hours sawing and filing and I was ready to go. However I was a little concerned about the new sprocket wearing faster than it should, so I decided to case harden it.

There are plenty of tutorials on case hardening on the web ( here is a nice simple explanation of how it works) However I chose this one because I had some charcoal. It was all a bit school-boy experimentation with oxy-acetylene and steam and stuff, but I enjoyed the process. Whatever the outcome of the metallurgy exercise, the best way to ensure it doesnt get too much wear is clearly to build the bike up to be an easy starter.... but thats a whole different problem

The original sprockets were riveted in place. I chose to use M4 stainless steel button head socket screws, with a good dob of lock-tight to ensure they don't come out accidently

Nuts and Bolts

2011-10-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

I started writing this blog to keep my dad up to date with my Manurhin project. As time has gone on, I've found a small group of people who appear to enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations of trying to bring this sorry machine back to life.
Some of these people are restoring their own Manurhin scooters and for them, I like to make reference to the documents I've used, the problems I've solved and the suppliers I've found.

Recently I had need to buy some special screws, and really struggled to find an engineering nuts & bolts stockist with a trade counter. Where have these centers of engineering communities gone? Where are the knowledgeable old gentlemen in their brown cow-gowns who could find just the right bolt for any problem you might put on their counter?
After a little searching, I managed to find 2 such businesses who when I phoned said no, they wouldn't mind if I arrived asking for 3 bolts. One incidentally was run by a lady..... from her house! - There's the modern engineering world for you!

The other company was run by a single chap from a tatty old industrial unit hidden among several huge car-breaking yards. As he was searching for the parts I wanted, we chatted about his business and the way it was changing; going one of two ways. Nuts & bolt suppliers were either bagging bolts and selling them for pennies on eBay, or they were servicing the specials market (He held up an impressive £40 nut, the size of a grapefruit for the MoD). Then he asked me what my 3 bolts were for and I told him about the Manurhin and how I liked to write on my blog about the interesting and helpful people I have met while solving the many problems I encounter.
"Let me stop you there" he said
"Don't tell anyone about my place"
I thought he might be concerned about his MoD customer.
"I don't want any more people turning up here asking for 3 bolts here and 2 nuts there. Its just not worth my while."
I paid him my 2 quid and left.

Ignition coils

2011-10-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Why cant I find any information on which variant of Manurhin had an ignition coil, and which didn't?

Close inspection of a French language 'Guide-Reparations' (repair guide) shows an electrical circuit (without the beltomatic integral safety switch) and lists out all sorts of useful information about strokes and bulb wattages and chain links etc etc.... and right down the bottom in the corner, almost as an after-thought, they say;

"Fitted with a Regulator.
A wire (green) connects to the handlebar switch on the left. The other wire (purple) connects to the regulator contact.
Note; Certain vehicles are equipped with an external ignition coil"

Oh, come on Manurhin! get it together! you cant simply dismiss the safety switch and HT coil just like that! Where are the details??

Frustrated, it is starting to dawn on me that my engine still isn't complete. As I began to calm down I went in search of more information

The french for "ignition coil" is "bobine d'allumage" and a quick google search bought up someone selling a Morel primary ignition coil for the Manurhin for 70 euros, but no specific details of an appropriate coil for my scooter.

Although I dont think it helps me immediately with the sourcing of a coil, I thought this Manurhin specific conversation about ignition systems might be a useful read in the near future. Its a great example of a small bunch of enthusiasts working together to solve a technical problem. I was especially delighted to read toward the end of the discussion an expression that only a French scooter rider would have the balls and style to say;

"Une fois de plus la ruse et l'intelligence ont triomphé de la force et de la bêtise!!!"

Repairing the exhaust manifold

2011-10-10T05:06:00.000-07:00

The more I work on this scooter, the more I think I must be mad. The whole thing is in such a state, its hardly worth the effort. Its certainly not worth the financial investment - I have already spent £640 and I am nowhere near getting this thing running, let alone road legal.

Every bit of this bike appears to be either missing or damaged (I really would love to know the history of it all)
Take the engine for example; Although the eBay advert said "Looks like its all there" My engine was missing a carburetor, a pull-starter assembly, an air-duct and a beltomatic Integral safety switch [and remember, this is just the engine - elsewhere, there is no electrics, electrical switches, lights, or brake cables. In addition I am also missing all of the pleasantries like badges, footrests and useable seats - the whole thing is in a very sorry state]

However, being the 'glass-half-full' (or should that be 'plain stupid'?) sort of chap that I am, I've been pressing on and collecting the missing bits here and there, and kidding myself that I could actually resuscitate this poor old scooter.

But thats enough about the 'Missing' parts, what about the 'Damaged' parts?
The cylinder barrel is just one example. The exhaust manifold has had its bolt hole smashed off. In the early days of this project I was of the mind to get it into a specialist welder to build up the iron casting and machine back to shape again, but as costs have started to escalate, I decided to look for a solution that I could do myself.

Its not elegant, but I think its adequate and man enough to do the job of holding the exhaust tight to the engine. A simple threaded plate held in place by a strap around the manifold.
And its a darn sight cheaper solution than buying a new barrel - There is someone currently selling a barrel/head/piston set on German eBay for £128

Beltomatic belts

2011-10-10T04:28:00.000-07:00

The drive belt on the scooter as I received it was rock-hard with age and was certainly in need of changing. I couldn't find any reference numbers on my belt but fortunately there seemed to be lots of online references to Manurhin drive belts (though the more I looked, the more I noticed that reference numbers do vary everso slightly)
There also seemed to be talk about how difficult it was to find these replacement belts, though I have seen one come up now and then on eBay and Leboncoin.fr

I decided that the specification number I would work to was 22x8x575Li

I needed to get some new oil seals for my crank bearings, and so while asking my local bearing stockist (IBS Bearings Ltd 0121 558 4141) about those, I also took the opportunity to ask them about drive belts - They immediately recognised the spec and quoted me £37.50
I was rather pleased with myself that I should be able to find a belt as easily as that. However it wasn't until later that day that a fellow Manurhin owner told me that he had just been quoted £12.50 for exactly the same thing! - well, actually its not exactly the same - 22x8x565 - but does this make a difference??
Only time will tell

Finding the right electrical schematics

2011-10-05T02:20:00.000-07:00

You've got to have your wits about you in this game. There is a lot of documentation about the Manurhin (for which I am very grateful) but I cant afford to make assumptions that I might have read it all carefully.

As much as I might try, I still haven't got my head completely round all the variants of DKW Hobby and Manurhin Scooter models and variants. I get the sense that it was all a bit of a free-for-all at the Manurhin Scooter factory with everybody trying a little modification here and a redesign there, and in doing so the technical authors must have had a hell of a job trying to keep up with creating appropriate handbooks.

One example of a variant is the HT coil. Some scooters have them, some don't. Mine doesn't, but does that mean my scooter has a particular model number?

Wiring schematic for bike with mechanical 'clutch'

Another example - and the one thats been bugging me is the Beltomatic "electric safety device" clutch control. Its ingenious no doubt, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason as to what bikes had this style of clutch while others had the manually operated lever clutch device.
Note; I may have my facts all of a muddle here - I hold my hand up to that - but I will investigate further and try to create a time line of how and when models and variants came about. However, just as an example of how messy all the terms are, I read the following in one brochure;

"Manurhin - The only scooter in The World with completely automatic transmission (Uher Beltomatic system) known as the "Variator"

My own scooter has the 'electric safety device' style of 'clutch' - which some brochures refer to as "Beltomatic Integral" - as introduced at the 1957-58 Motor show.
Although the original switch part was snapped off my engine when I bought it - I have since managed to buy a replacement, and as I get closer to wanting to start my engine I began to wonder about how this electrical switch is wired into the running circuit of the bike.... and this is where my assumptions have made a bit of a fool of me.

Wiring schematic for bike with 'electrical safety' clutch

I had been reading the Manurhin Scooter owners manual with great interest, but frustratingly couldn't find any reference to the 'electric safety device'. The manual only talks about the mechanical lever type.
It never occurred to me that Manurhin in their wisdom might have produce exactly the same Manurhin Scooter owners manual BUT with just a couple of pages differing to cover this clutch difference..... there's not even a little reference number or identification on the alternative booklet to help a dealer know which manual is which. Its a modern-day data-management nightmare!

It was only after plenty of scouring through the many different copies of manuals that I have (gratefully received from various other Manurhin owners) that I suddenly noticed - with great delight and relief - the differences in publications. [I hope I have made this clear now in the reproducing of the two different owner manuals on the Manurhin Scooter Interest Group website]

So I now have a wiring schematic for how the 'electrical safety switch' clutch control is wired in. And it looks to me to be a simple case of grounding the LT to intermittently stall the engine and prevent it from revving too hard and thus engaging the belt drive.

spark plugs

2011-10-05T01:27:00.000-07:00

I cant for the life of me find any reference to the specification of the correct spark plug for my scooter. Various owner manuals can tell me that my ignition is "Magneto, fixed spark advance" and that my points should be ".016" - .02" " etc but no mention of what sort of replacement spark plug.
My Manurhin came with a spark plug in it, but as the bike in general had been so abused, I am being cautious as to wether this is a spark plug as specified.

The plug in my bike is an AC 44-5V

I came across The Green Spark Plug Company on the internet and thought I would do a little research into sparkplugs. Crikey! I hadn't realised how complex it all was, and so I gave them a call to see if they could enlighten me.
The very helpful chap at GSPC informed me that an AC 44-5V was very likely the correct plug for my scooter (and very common for scooters in general). They were out of stock of those but the very reasonable J8C would be a suitable alternative (see the photo alongside for a comparison of these plugs - seems like a 'copper core' electrode is the only difference - and these are supposed to be better for high temperatures..... not that i imagine my Manurhin getting that much wear)
I pressed him further for suggestions on plug caps, and once again he informed me that my application was pretty common and a standard non-suppressed LZFH would do the job handsomely.
Feeling flush I took the plunge and ordered a meter of 7mm PVC HT lead too.

Total cost including postage; £7.82

Starter rope

2011-10-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

The puller rope on my starter assembly is damaged. It was damaged when I bought the starter assembly off eBay, and until now it hasn't been a problem for me to think about, but as the engine slowly comes back together, I need to get it working again.
Stripping the spring return assembly is all pretty straight forward, but it clearly is something that hadn't been done for a while - it was full of a thick cake of mud, dirt and oil, severely restricting the free movement of the engagement plates.

I had originally intended to simply replace the original and damaged wire pull rope with a modern nylon rope designed for lawn mower engines, however it turns out that a lawn mower pull rope is too thick to fit comfortably around the assembly, and so I had to go in search of a replacement flexible wire rope.

There are many specifications for wire rope, and not all wire rope is suitable for such regular wrapping and unwrapping around a tight diameter like the Manurhin starter device. And so it was with little confidence that I went to see a local wire rope supplier. But how wrong could I be?

Rope Services Direct Ltd were fantastic. Mike was not only interested in my problem, but had exactly the wire rope i needed (2.5mm dia. Multi-strand, stainless steel) and hundreds of other types of wire besides. He also threw in a handful of appropriate end terminals for me - all for the price of a beer!
Incidentally; Rope Services Direct Ltd can also create bowden cables to any design and end fitting, so they may well be very useful a little further down the line when it comes to break and throttle cables too

Registering my scooter

2011-10-03T01:59:00.000-07:00

I've had a little niggle in the back of my mind for a while now, and although it is still a long way off, I am slightly concerned about the process of registering my scooter - especially as I have no previous documentation or proof of its originality [though I hope in some way this blog will be able to illustrate its authenticity]
As I was eating my breakfast the other morning I was reading the latest edition of Old Bike Mart (I thoroughly recommend everyone subscribing - its better than.... well anything that you think is really good)
I read with interest about a 1928 Indian scout project that had just been "issued a dating certificate" so that the owner could apply for a period registration number. This piqued my interest and so I dropped the writer an email to ask more about this process.

Mike Worthing emailed me back;
"My dating certs are accepted by DVLA. I provide the cert, all the DVLA paperwork filled in for you to sign and retain, and a step by step drill to follow to obtain an age related number. The fee for this services is thirty pounds (payable to me please) and my address is in Old Bike Mart"

So this might be a useful contact for the (lets hope not too distant) future.

Fitting the crankshaft

2011-10-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

I remember quite clearly my anxiousness when it finally came round to fitting the crankshaft back into my Vespa PX 200 engine. And despite that previous experience going pretty smoothly, I didn't feel any less anxious this time round either.
I use the tried and trusted method of heating one part of the assembly to expand it, and freezing the other part of the assembly to contract it - then if you are quick enough to maintain the temperature differences, the two closely fitting parts slide together relatively easily - the key phrase here being "if you are quick enough" - it is all a bit of a 5 minute rush and panic.

I think much of the success in fitting bearings and crankshafts is in the preparation - having pullers and blocks ready to hand to help the quick process of fitting fully home. I made up a whole bunch of plates to spread loads, and tubes to pull down on and laid them all out neatly ready for action.
So with the two bearings just out of the freezer, and a blow-torch on the engine casings (hot enough so you cant touch, but not so hot that things are glowing) the bearings went home beautifully.
For those who are interested - I made great effort to ensure I didn't forget to put back the "compensating washer" before dropping the main bearing in. I am not sure how I should have determined if this washer was still doing the right amount of 'compensating' (or indeed what it is compensating for) but I decided to simply put back the washer that I took out when I unassembled the engine - it was 0.5mm thick.

Next step - fitting the crankshaft into the new bearings - this of course requires the closing of the two halves of the engine case, so fitting the new gasket all takes a little more preparation and time

The crankshaft only needed a couple of hours in the freezer to chill. With the larger engine-case half suitably warmed by blow-torch, and the bearing heavily lubed up with grease it was a relatively quick and easy fitting, though it did need my prepared puller to draw it home properly.
To fit the other side bearing, the engine cases have to be closed, so while I was Red-Hermatiting the gasket the crankshaft was slowly warming back to ambient temperature which would mean that I wasnt going to have the same expansion/contraction advantage as I did on the first bearing. However, I still heated up the smaller engine-case side and bearing and sure enough, it went home without too much fuss or bother.

I have to say, it was a great relief as I tightened down the engine case bolts to feel the crankshaft spinning silently and freely.

Replacement bearings. Theory vs Reality

2011-10-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Now pay attention, because this is complicated (or boring - depending on your interest in these sorts of things)
I am blessed to have a complete spare parts manual (in English) for my Manurhin - and I am indebted my friends in the Manurhin Scooter Interest Group for these invaluable documents, and so armed with these documents I asked PJ Motorcycle Engineers to supply me with the listed bearings and seals. I was delighted when they said they recognised the part number references, and sure enough they could supply exactly as stated in the spare parts inventory

However, when I got back to my garage and laid out the new bearings to compare with the old ones, something was wrong. I had the correct new bearings (as indicated by the spares list) but they didn't all match with the actual bearings that I had removed from the engine. To be clear - the inconsistency is in the crankshaft bearing - flywheel side.
In the exploded diagram to the right, you can see bearings marked as parts No.16 and No.19.
Part No.16 is identified as a 6303 bearing - and indeed the part I removed was a 6303

But my confusion starts with part No.19.
First of all the parts-list shows 2 alternatives for this bearing - depending on the type of coupling your crankshaft has. This becomes even more complicated as I try to identify the type of coupling - Ive highlighted in blue on the above parts list, the two alternative couplings - and I have no idea what this means (any insight on this would be gratefully received) All I can confirm is that my own crankshaft has a tri-lobe drive (this could be what the list calls 'polygone') on a 15mm dia shaft - which might lead us to identify with Part No.21 - the 15mm dia oil seal (as opposed to Part No.21A - the 17mm dia oil seal)

I did warn that this is all very complex and boring!
So according to the parts list I should expect to have either a 6303 bearing or a 6203 bearing. Curiously, the bearing I removed is neither of these

Regardless of what the parts list says, the actual bearing that I removed from my engine is a 6202. which as can be seen in the photo alongside is very much smaller in diameter than a 6303 or 6203.
(note the 3rd bearing down - the largest diameter one - is the bearing type - 6303 - required for the other side of the crankshaft)

I spent ages scratching my head, checking, cross-checking and measuring and in the end decided that all I could do was simply replace what came out of the engine in spite of what the parts list said.
Fortunately, as I had decided not to replace the transmission bearings (but had bought them anyway), I had a new 6202 bearing (as shown at the top of this photo) so I am all set to get that crankshaft back where it belongs.
I feel slightly anxious.

More reference numbers

2011-10-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Oooh I've found some more engine reference numbers. They are very subtle and I have only just noticed them. They appear to be hand etched with a vibrating engraving tool. I have no idea of their significance (and in fact I'm not sure if I can read them completely) but I suspect they might be something to do with matching the engine case halves during manufacture.
The numbers appear to be similar on both halves of the case and can be found on the bottom side of the cylinder barrel port.

Crankshaft balancing

2011-10-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Partly prompted by the fact that I couldn't remove the small bearing from the crankshaft (see earlier post) I decided a couple of weeks ago to get the crankshaft over to a specialist to get the bearing removed and to have it all balanced. When I rebuilt my Vespa engine, I didn't bother to have the crankshaft checked or balanced, and I am rather regretting that now; the poor old thing rattles and vibrates like buggery - in fact after an hour of so in the saddle, I can get 'white finger' numbness! [as an aside, I think i have resolved to get the Vespa engine out again in the winter to get this sorted]

I took the crankshaft over to (the relatively local) PJ Motorcycle Engineers. It was comforting to walk into their shop and see lots of performance engine bits and not a helmet, headlamp or bit of bling-trim in sight. They looked like proper motorcycle engineers and appeared interested in my peculiar engine, and although it took them nearly 2 weeks they balanced my crankshaft and supplied 6 new bearings all for the very reasonable price of £45. Apparently my crankshaft was 3 thou out of true (I have no idea how big a deal this is, but I see on their website that a single thou can make all the difference) My understanding is that they were happy with the big-end bearing (though I couldn't work out if they had actually taken it apart)

Since getting the crankshaft and bearings back, I have been looking at the transmission shafts and bearings, and I've decided that I am not going to change those bearings this time round (they look and feel ok, and I am worried about how to extract the bearings in the blind holes without removing the end caps and causing all sorts of problems in replacing them)

Exhaust and silencer

2011-10-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

And while I was in the mood for gently persuading seized things to come apart (see previous post about piston rings), I thought I'd have a go at the exhaust and silencer assembly - As I get closer to getting my engine together I am thinking about trying to start it on the bench, and so I will need the exhaust pipe soon.

I understand that Manurhin exhausts are quite rare to find, so I count myself lucky that although most essential parts seem to be missing from my scooter, I do at least have an exhaust system. It seems to be all there, but it it rattles terribly with what i guessed to be rust. The Manurhin parts catalogue shows that there is a removable/serviceable muffler assembly inside the outer casing and this is accessed by removing a nut and end-cap. It was clear that these parts were well rusted together, so once again I've been soaking the thread and joint in WD40 for a week or two.

Today I applied some heat with a blow-torch, and amazingly the nut released (I was preparing to sheer it off and weld a new thread in). A little more heat, some tapping the joint with a hammer, and sure enough the cap came free.

I was delighted to find that despite a little pile of rust, the muffler is in remarkable shape.

I think a quick wire brush and a spray of exhaust paint, and this bit at least should be good-to-go

Piston rings

2011-10-01T08:17:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was witness (party to?) a frustrating moment as a friend attempted to free the rings from the piston of an ancient scooter he was rebuilding that hadn't run for years. The rings were well stuck (though not welded in, so certainly salvageable). He'd been soaking them in penetrating oil but was now very keen to get them out and so with the help of some heat from a blow-torch we set about getting them out. Alas, we were too hasty, and sure enough we snapped one ring. Under normal circumstances this might have simply cost a couple of days and a couple of quid, but as the engine was rare, it took him a great deal of effort to source a suitable replacement.

If any good was to come out of that experience, it was that I learned a valuable lesson; or rather it reinforced a mantra "patience is a virtue".
As a consequence, I've been soaking my Manurhin piston and seized rings for many weeks now - ive been in no rush. This morning however, I decided to get proactive. While the wife was still asleep in bed, I popped the piston on the kitchen stove and set it to boil. Every now and then, I whipped it out, gave the rings a little tap around with the wooden handle of a screwdriver, squirted some WD40 on, let it cool..... and then repeated the process.
Hey presto, the rings eventually let go of the piston and sprung out like new.
A little patience and some gentle persistence, and I've saved myself a lot of heartache

Beltomatic assemblies

2011-09-25T04:22:00.000-07:00

With the engine all in pieces and waiting for parts to arrive, I decided to occupy myself with overhauling the Beltomatic (I love that word) drive assemblies; after-all, its all very well making the engine run sweetly, but if the power isn't going to transmit reliably then the whole thing is a waste of time.

This is an ingenious piece of design and engineering that requires springs and counterweights and bearings and sliding bits. I only hope it performs as well as it looks like it should.

There was nothing particularly complicated about stripping it down. There is a retaining circlip on the primary assembly that wasn't compatible with my circlip pliers, but nothing that a couple of screwdrivers and a little patience couldn't handle. I was surprised to find that the needle rollers on the primary drive are held in an alloy cage, and even more surprised to see that the cage was still in good condition. There were a number of "compensating washers" taking up the lateral movement in the assembly - I have no idea what the factory setting should be for this slack or if my compensating washers are still appropriate, and so I shall reassemble as found and see how she fairs.

After a complete strip and jolly good clean down (its amazing how much the accumulated crud can restrict the ease of flyweight movement) I spray painted the drive plates with Smooth Black Hammerite.
Definitely a job worth doing as the assemblies feel so much more free now, and I am confident that all the parts that will require lubrication can now get it.

Engine Gasket Set

2011-09-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

Now committed to a full engine rebuild, I went in search of a gasket set. And sure enough I found someone out there who makes gasket sets for old motorbikes. Of course there is! I often wonder what it might have been like to do a project like with without the use of the internet (and then my mind usually wanders to the next question..... what will it be like to do a project like this in say 25 years time, when [internet] technology might have evolved into something we cannot even begin to imagine!)

I noticed on the Klamotte website that they sold gasket set for DKW Hobby engines but there was no mention of Manurhin. As I wasn't sure if there might be some subtle differences, I emailed them to ask if the Hobby Gaskets would suit my Manurhin.
Their response? "Hello, I´m sorry, but I don`t know this engine"
Really!??

Fortunately, fellow Manurhin owner, Roy, had already told me that this gasket set was suitable so I went ahead and ordered anyway.

So, for 21 Euros plus 4 Euros shipping, I now have a engine gasket set. Just got to get those bearing changed now and it can all go back together

Engine casings

2011-09-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Now most of the bearings are out of the engine casings, I can give the casings a jolly good clean and inspection.
Generally the casings appear to be in good condition, but I was a little worried to see signs of 'chattering' on the insides of the crank casing.

I wonder what might have caused this?
Will new bearings solve this? and has the engine been damaged now because of this wear?
Do I have to get them machined smooth again?

Plenty of things for me to be thinking on over the next couple of weeks while I am away from the garage.

Bearing extraction

2011-09-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

So I managed to get the crankshaft bearings out of the engine casings with a little bit of jigging and extracting, and I think Ive found a chap who can supply new bearings to suit (I will get round to seeing him over the next couple of weeks).
The only bearing left now to extract is the one that came out of the casing still firmly attached to the crankshaft, and I am buggered if I can get it off. The trouble is that it is so closely up against the counterweights that I cant get an extractor or a purchase behind the bearing. I've tried some heat and clamping in a vise, but no joy (actually I'm not convinced that heat is going to help because I cant heat it without heating the shaft too, which seems to defeat the point)

So what to do?
Well, I decided in the end to leave it for a while, let some penetrating oil do its job and spend some time incubating on the problem while I overhauled the clutch assemblies.
All suggestions on how to remove this bearing will be gratefully received :-)

Crankshaft machined

2011-09-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

A while ago while out in our local curry house, I bumped into an old friend. He owns a successful engineering company, and I was quick to ask him if motorcycle engines were something he ever had the pleasure of handling. His answer was simple - "NO - too much hassle" (and to be fair to him, if your business is tier 1 engineering supplier to the auto manufacturing trade, nobbing about with private one-off jobs probably is more hassle than its worth) - "But, if you want to drop it round, I'll have a look at it for you.... as a friend". And so I did.

It turns out that the sheered pin in the crankshaft was hardened, and so the only way out was to spark erode it out. The Manurhin workshop manual calls this little pin "a magnetic cotter pin" - im not sure why 'magnetic' but my engineer friend and I decided that a new pin made from a piece of silver-steel would be tough enough to do the alignment job and yet sacrificial should anything fail (I'm relying on the tapered shaft to do all the securing of the flywheel)

Note only one hole was spark-eroded. It looks oval at the top, but its a good true 2mm dia hole deeper down

Normally when updating this blog I would put a link in to the supplier or source of information, but in this instance, I'm not sure if Richard of RPS engineering in Birmingham would be overly grateful to receive a little queue of scooter tinkerers asking for fiddly-piddly machining jobs. Its not really what his CNC machines are cut out for.

Crankshaft out

2011-08-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

When I first acquired my Manurhin, I said I'd just brush the rust off and drive it around as found.... I was soon to discover that half the ancillary parts were missing, so I had to adjust my objective.

As I searched (and found) the bits and pieces needed to get my engine running, I said I'd just bolt the missing bits back on and see how it ran. I was very keen to get the machine on the road...... However, a break away from the bench and some time to think on the beach has made me realise that this approach might be a bit foolish and so I resolved to strip the engine properly, put new bearings and oil seals in and make a proper job of it. And at the same time get that knackered crankshaft/flywheel pin/woodruff attended to.

Yesterday I spent a much needed couple of hours in the garage with spanners and oil (Funny how I need that garage time as much as I need a holiday) and I extracted the crankshaft.

The engine casing bolts came out very easily and with the help of a simple homemade extractor/puller, I gently (and easily) pulled the small crankcase half off the shaft. Then with the same puller tool on the larger crankcase half I gently extracted the other side of the crankshaft. Very calm, very gently, nice and easy.

First inspection of the crank looks encouraging. The big end feels good (Im refering to Dan - of Gransport - expert technique of checking big ends) The small end I might need a second opinion, but its not bad.
The rings are gummed into the piston so Ive left that to soak in some penetrating oil in the hope they will pop out eventually

I have to say I was very excited to see some reference numbers on the side of the crankshaft counter balance... And a date! 1958. This is the first sign of a date i have on the bike (I have no paper work and no history for the bike to help me date it. Although i have them, the chassis numbers are still a mystery to me and give me no clues as to a manufacturer date). Now the date on the crankshaft only helps me with the ID of the Crankshaft, not necessarily of the engine, and not necessarily of the bike itself, but nevertheless I was excited :-)

But what about those other references? What do those other numbers mean? '0', '2', is that '24'? 'MR'? and Im not sure if it even says something like 'MAY' on there - ive tried it under different lights but I'm not sure if I'm just seeing things. What does it all mean?

and then there is a curious mark on the outside of the counterweight (is this the right technical term?) Is that mark intentional? Does it signify something? Is it a 'C'? or a 'G'?

Does anyone know?

So now the crankshaft is safely out I can get it to an engineering shop and get that pin/woodruff spark-eroded out.
And I can go and see if I can find some replacement bearings and oil-seals (fingers crossed)

Online Manurhin Scooter Interest Group

2011-08-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

Following my email conversation with VMSC about a "Manurhin Owners Club" and the subsequent publication in their club magazine, I have had some interesting and encouraging conversations with one or two Manurhin owners. And as a consequence have set up a "Manurhin Scooter Interest Group" website.

To be clear, this is not necessarily just focused on Manurhins, but to include the words "DKW Hobby" in the title and web address was just too much of a mouthful!
The general intention is to attract "owners, riders and enthusiasts" of both Manurhin scooters and DKW hobbys, and if sufficiently interested, to get then to join the members-only network group (no cost, no obligation)

I hope that by creating a network of members, we can grow a central hub for conversations and sharing experiences & expertise. And I would dearly love to get a register of machines going.

Who knows where this might lead, but I really hope it becomes a useful and growing resource for everyone.

Come and join us now www.manurhinscooter.co.uk

Back in Blighty - Empty-handed, but with a clear plan

2011-08-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

Well that was a lovely long holiday we had touring the homelands of DKW and Manurhin.
Did I see any DKWs or Manurhins? Not a sausage.
Was I being naive to think that there might be a couple of classics out there? Afterall when you visit Italy, you can pretty well be sure of seeing an old Vespa or two (though admittedly, even they are becoming few and far between these days).
I know that there are Manurhins and parts out there in France, because they come up on online auction sites, but they dont appear to come out onto the roads or even flea-markets. In most towns I would ask someone if they knew of a scooter mechanic or a scrap-yard nearby. Everyone knew of something 'scooterish' but only modern stuff - in fact I was surprised as just how few people had ever even heard of a Manurhin scooter. I was under the impression that Manurhins were manufactured in sufficient enough numbers to have been popular and well known.

The bottom line is that while I was disappointed not to have bought back with me a heap of parts bought from flea-markets for a few Euros, I did have a wonderful holiday and while resting on the beach and roof-top terraces, I did formulate a clearer plan for my own Manurhin rebuild.

I also left the continent with a very strong feeling that as someone trying to bring an old Manurhin back to life, I was doing a 'good' thing. They are a rare thing.

The bits keep coming

2011-08-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

I might be on holiday, but there is no rest for the wicked.
I have been working really hard (between drinking French wine and laying on the beach) at searching out parts for my Manurhin. I am convinced that I am going to discover a scrap yard or a workshop with a couple of basket cases waiting for me to claim my bits. Alas, I am having little luck so far.
BUT... eBay continues to be my saviour.
We are doing a fair amount of traveling this holiday, and we are not always with internet access (this amazes me that some people choose not to provide internet access in their houses, hotels, B&Bs, cafes, bars etc - I feel like ive had an arm cut off when there is no google to check a map or historical detail, or in this case, eBay)
However, whenever we do get the chance to get on line, eBay is still a high priority for me to check..... and its paid off.

3 days ago, I bought from a UK seller another carb, a petrol cap and a bike stand.
And today, Thanks to Roy for the phone call this morning to tell me of the part just come on line, I bought a (rare as rocking horseshoes) rear light, rear badge and fuel tap from a chap in France - who frustratingly is only about an hour away from where I am right now (Montpellier) - but as we are traveling without a car, getting out into the countryside is not so easy.

I am sure that I am paying through the nose for these parts (I shall do a budget summary when I return to the UK) but I figure that if I am going to get this bike onto the road, I am going to need the parts eventually, and though i might be able to buy the bits cheaper eventually, I might have to work a long time for the parts to come round again. I am very pleased to get a rear light (thanks Roy for spotting it) and I think its a smart idea to have a spare carb - so things are looking good.
AND I think I might have access to a front badge too - I dont want to tempt fate, so wont speak too much of this yet until the deal is done ;-)

A UK Manurhin owners club?

2011-08-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

When I acquired my Manurhin, I quickly joined the VMSC (Vintage Motor Scooter Club) in my search for contacts and information. I sent them an email and asked if there was a "Manurhin club" in the UK. They replied that they were not aware of one, but would I be interested in starting one up.
I replied that in principle I would be interested in starting one BUT I am not THE expert, just an enthusiast.

The VMSC published my letter of "interest" in the club magazine, and today I had a call from David in Bristol who owns a running Manurhin and seemed to like the idea of a club - and had lots of information to share. Fabulous :-)
I need to check this idea with the people who have been so helpful to me so far but I think when i return from my holiday I shall set up an online social/club network and see how it flys

ou sont les vieux scooters?

2011-08-04T10:25:00.001-07:00

Im in Agde - south of France - for the week, and I haven't seen a single scooter older than maybe 10 years. Everyone seems to ride twist'n'go's.

Nevertheless, my spideysense is tingling - I can feel a Manurhin or two nearby. I am sure that there is a manurhin within a couple of miles radius of me, and I am certain that there is someone prepared to sell me some parts within a 10 mile radius..... but how can i find these people?

There are 2 scooter shops in Agde; one a Peugeot dealer, and the other an MBK dealer. I went into the MKB dealer today and in my very best (poor) French asked about "Les Ancien Scooters". I explained I was looking for parts for my Manurhin projects and did they know of anyone who might be able to help me?

The answer was simple;

"Non" nowhere in this town

I refuse to believe him and will continue to try and sniff those Manurhins out

Where are the Hobbys in Germany?

2011-07-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

My Manurhin project is on pause for the moment while I am on summer holiday with my family.
This week we are in Berlin; an amazing city that I so wish I had visited as a student in the 80's.

I was rather excited to be coming to Germany - perhaps I might stumble over a DKW Hobby or two in a local junk shop or car boot sale. As it happens Berlin has a number of 'Flohmarkts' (flea-markets) and the one in Mauerpark is easily one of the biggest markets I've ever been too. We must have spent 4 or 5 exhausting hours walking up and down the alleys of people selling anything from vintage t-shirts to handmade lampshades, from East German Kitsch to cool retro furniture. And it seems like they are into their bicycles here too. We must have seen hundreds of bicycles, and thousands of bicycle parts for sale ..... but not a motorbike bit in sight.

I left the family to search through even more piles of clothes and went to visit the Bauhaus Museum and on my way passed the first interesting looking scooter I'd seen on this trip. It looked unusual, certainly something I'd never seen before, so I stopped to take a photo. While nosing around to find a manufacturer badge the owner came out to see what I was doing. He couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak German, but through some friendly sign language I was able to establish it was an 1980's East German (DDR) built SIMSON SCHWALBE. I'd never heard of it, and it was such an odd looking thing that I took rather a fancy to it. That was yesterday.

Today, there was still more markets and shopping to do (for the girls), so I took the opportunity to go and find out a little more about these East German built motorbikes. I went to the DDR Motorrad Museum (which conveniently is only a few hundred yards from the railway station AND the shopping center). I had a wonderful time on my own exploring an area of motorcycle manufacture that I'd never even heard of. Of course I had heard of MZ when my poverty stricken student mates were buying their first motorbikes in the mid '80's - but as far as i remembered they were pig ugly and unreliable to boot, but today the penny dropped for me - MZ has ancestry in Auto Union and as a consequence in DKW and by association, my Manurhin Concorde too - everything is connected!

I still don't have much enthusiasm for the MZ ES125 - whoever agreed for a design like that to come off the drawing board?? (even if it is "the most-built German motorcycle"), but I have discovered the most wonderful great grandfather of MZ, the very cool 1955 shaft-driven AWO 425 Touren. OK so its not a scooter, nor is it a 2-stroke...... but maybe it could become another project one day? :-)

So I didn't find any DKW hobby parts in Berlin. I hope I have better luck with Manurhin parts when Im in France next week.

BTW - I was delighted to find tonight someone writing an excellent blog about the rebuild of his Simson Schwalbe.

If only I had the time

2011-07-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Things have slowed up a little in the garage. Unfortunately, to enjoy having projects like this I have to get out and earn some money now and then to fund them, and when I do go earning money it often means being away from home for a while.
Ive just got back from New Zealand where I was working with some very interesting scientists who were looking at how to tackle the increasing global problem of Obesity and Diabetes. It was a fascinating trip, in which a real highlight was to have breakfast one morning at the fantastic "Shed 5" (I thourougly recommend going to NZ just to visit Shed 5 ;-)
Of course being away from home means that I cant get to the bench and make tangible progress with my project, but it doesnt stop me from thinking about it - and I think this incubation time can actually be quite useful.

I am beginning to get more clarity on my objectives now. My Manurhin is lacking a good number of parts (some essential to its movement, and some essential to its identity) Up until now I have been a little confused as to what i was trying to do with this bike; restore it to its original glory, or simply get it up and running and on the road again? Either way I want to get it running, registered and legal, but the latter route might be the easiest, quickest and cheapest. To restore the bike to original condition is going to take a lot of searching (and expense) if I am going to insist on original trim and fittings. For example.....

Another UK based Manurhin has come up on eBay (Im delighted to see so many coming out). The vendor has done a nice job of breaking the bike down to sell off individual components. But he didnt seem to be selling the specific parts that Im after, so I emailed him;

"Hi. Very pleased to see you are selling some manurhin parts. I don't suppose you have;
- Rear light
- Handlebar switches
- Front manurhin badge"

He quickly came back to me;

"These seem to be THE parts to have. Other people have asked too but no I'm sorry I don't have these parts"

This reinforces my original thought that perhaps my own bike was once robbed of these parts to feed someone elses project.
And so perhaps I might be fooling myself into thinking that I can ever find these parts (at a price I can afford, or am willing to afford). I could however over come these deficiencies by fabricating my own 'custom' parts - it would mean the bike wouldn't be concourse, but it could still be cool.

So I am back from working abroad, but i still don't have much time to get in the garage. Holidays are coming and I'm off to France.
Perhaps there will be an opportunity for me to get out into some French villages and find some old Manurhins gathering dust,
Perhaps I might find some parts that I need,
Perhaps the 'supply and demand' in France isnt so much against me as it is here in the UK,
Perhaps....

A few French parts

2011-06-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Im not sure if I've done the right thing here.
A short while back, I found a chap on a French website selling some parts for a Manurhin scooter. I contacted him and enquired about a carburettor (i still needed one at that stage), rear light and switches.
He initially thought he could help me with the carb, but it didnt come off. But he did have a whole load of other parts that I might be interested in.

He sent me some photos and asked me to indicate any bits that I wanted. There was nothing I REALLY needed right now, but certainly some parts that I was going to need one day and so I made an offer. We eventually agreed on a price for the parts and postage.

So for £71, I now own
1 x rear wheel hub (the sort with the cush-drive - I'm not sure if this is the sort I should have on my bike)
1 x set of wheel spokes (in case i do decide to rebuild my rear wheel with this alternative hub)
2 x brake cables (I havent checked them, but the bike came with out cables so I'm hoping these are the right ones)
1 x chain (again, i needed one)
1 x new cylinder head gasket
2 x covers for the handle bar switches (I think these were the bits that most attracted me - eventually I will find the switches I want but who knows in what condition - now at least I have some clean covers for them)

I think I have paid far too much money for these bits (the postage was never going to be cheap coming from France) but I have them now, and perhaps I am going to have to get used to spending a bit of cash now and then just to make a little bit of head way

As an aside, all this negotiation with the French man was conducted by via 'Google Translate' translations - its not always 100% accurate, but it's jolly good and I am extremely grateful for the service. I simply wouldn't have been able to make the communications 10 years ago (well certainly not as easily and quickly)
I have put a translation gadget at the foot of this blog for the benefit of people who might need words translating now and then

Carburettor repair

2011-06-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

I guess that when it comes to rebuilding old (and relatively rare) motorcycles, beggars cant be choosers over the parts they need and acquire.
I was really disappointed to find that my original eBay purchase of the bike didnt have a carb on the engine. I thought this would be a real stumbling block, but within a few weeks I had purchased a Gurtner J14 (from Roy) and I once again re-enthused that perhaps I could get my machine up and running.

However, on stripping the carb I was faced with a couple of challenges - why is nothing ever simple?
Firstly there is no fuel-in banjo fitting. I thought this would be a simple thing to overcome, but no-one that I spoke with (from Scooters, to lawn-mowers to vintage motorbikes) could find anything that was remotely close, and so I prepared myself to make a suitable fitting (and stole a little selection of brass tubing from my dads garage)

The second challenge was to repair the bodge of someone elses doing - I find it incredible that some people think they can overcome mechanical problems with the most outrageous and inappropriate bodges (though that said, in this instance, this bodge probably did work and got some fool out of trouble for a while). At some stage someone has sheered the top cap retaining screw in the chamber body, and to make things worse then simply rammed in an oversized screw into the remaining couple of millimeters of hole. This has distorted the slide chamber, making the needle slide impossible to remove without filing flat the distorted chamber wall

I had a couple of options to repair this. One was to purchase a left-handed 2.5mm drill bit and gently left-hand drill the sheered remains out - I read somewhere on the internet that using a small piece of brass tube that fits snugly in the hole can help centrally align a pilot hole. The theory behind the Left-hand drill is that it would reduce the amount that the thread was driven futher in and might perhaps even help to unscrew the thread (much like an ezy-out). I discounted this option as my pillar drill doesn't have a reverse drive

I decided in the end to drill the old thread completely out with an oversized hole, and plug that hole with a 4mm dia piece of aluminum rod, and then re-drill and tap to the correct M3 size

Incidentally; as I was tossing and turning one night thinking about this problem, I wondered about what adhesive I should use to bond the plug into the drilled out hole. In the middle of the night on my iPhone i started to read forums where people had asked the same question with regard to petrol resistant adhesives. Lots of people were saying that JB weld was the stuff to use but it wasn't easy to find in the UK.
In my local hardware store, they sold "Araldite Rapid Steel" which claims to be "Ideal for most types of metal including steel, aluminum, iron, copper and brass, and is oil and chemical resistant" ..... "oil and chemical resistant?" what about petrol? I decided to put it to the test.
I made up a sample piece of two bits of aluminum rod bonded together with the 'rapid steel' - left it to harden for a couple of days and then submerged it i petrol for 5 days. The result? Well, no degradation as far as I could see - so I'm going to use it. It will certainly be good enough to get the thing running and give me time to find another Gurtner chamber if necessary

Drilling the hole out to 4mm is a maginal job, Ive just about avoided breaking the wall of the slide chamber, but it has distorted it a little.
After flatting back with needle files and emery paper, the job is quite neat but it has exposed a patch of the 'rapid steel' adhesive. If my test piece is anything to go by, I shouldn't have much to worry about. I'm guessing also that petrol shouldn't really get up the sides of the slide. We shall find out.

In the meantime - while Ive been thinking about and fiddling with this repair I was having a little email paper-chase too.
Klaus Faak of Faak-Tilmanns UG had come back to me saying that he could supply Bing carburettor parts, but not Gurtner carburettor parts, but suggested I speak with Jean-Noel Benech in Toulouse who might be able to help.

Monsieur Benech came straight back to me with a Gurtner J14 parts list and asked me to identify the bits I needed. I was amazed that I could simply pick the bits I wanted from a parts list. I sent him my wish list and I await his reply with prices. Maybe I wont have to make my own banjo after all

UPDATE; I never did hear back from M. Benech, but I did manage to buy another Gurner carb - and used that as a donor for the banjos

Crankshaft pin still challenges me

2011-06-28T05:18:00.000-07:00

I was delighted and extremely grateful to Roy, Reg and Bernie who all had something to contribute to my enlightenment of this odd flywheel/crankshaft alignment pin. A little flurry of phone calls and emails gave me much encouragement. My understanding now is that it is certainly a little pin that sits in a blind hole on the shaft that locates the flywheel keyway. Apparently other DKW motorcycles have used this arrangement.

Reg modified his shaft and had a keyway machined into the shaft. I still have to work out my solution as I had originally intended to try and start the engine without splitting the crank case. I tried drilling the sheered pin out the shaft, but it would appear that its hardened and the drill bit wont cut it. So I am left pondering.

It was during these conversations that Roy pointed out to me as to why those starter ratchet sprocket (as mounted on the flywheel) might have been so heavily damaged, and so dreadfully knocked off center. He wondered if the engine might have been seized at some stage and an enthusiastic bodger had tried to free the seizure by hammering a cold chisel (or more likely a screwdriver) onto the ratchet sprocket.
Aha! a mystery solved perhaps.
However this raised another really important question - and one that might be influential on wether I should split the crank case.
If the crankshaft had been whacked and whacked to the extent that it buggered the starter sprocket like it is...... had the crankshaft itself been bent? Up until this point I hadn't thought about wether the crankshaft was true or not.

I dont own a dial micrometer so I couldn't accurately measure this immediately, but i was curious enough to get a feel for how true the crankshaft was.
I rigged up a bit of stiff wire on the engine case and bent it to shape so that it was gently touching the crankshaft. Rotating the crank sure enough revealed that there was indeed a slight oscillation. But in my opinion only slight.
In order to give myself an amplified sense of the oscillation, I placed the flywheel onto the shaft and nipped it up. Spinning the crankshaft now and measuring the movement on flywheel in relation to the engine case didnt really give me a sense of horror.

I concluded that the crank was good enough. It was certainly good enough to continue with trying to start it without splitting the case yet........ if indeed I could solve the alignment pin without having to take the crank out and to a machine shop.

I am going away for a few weeks now for work and so this is going to be perfect thinking and decision making time.

Replacement Cylinder Head Stud

2011-06-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

I am a true believer in the power of WD40 and its ability to release anything that has got stuck. However, people often forget the other magic ingredient in getting things unstuck with WD40...... time!
WD40 will unstick anything if you give it enough time to penetrate. A little squirt of WD40 daily for a week or two will in my experience unstick pretty well anything.
So why oh why didn't I listen to my own mantra when it came to unbolting the cylinder head a number of weeks ago when I started to strip the engine? In my excitement, I sheered one of the cylinder head studs. I was very annoyed with myself and have wondered for a few weeks how I was going to replace it.

Its a M6 x 120 stud. I thought other scooters might have something similar, but Gransport scooters werent aware of anything this size, and nor was my local lawn mower repair center, so when I popped into Vale Onslow the other day to ask about a possible carburettor banjo (they couldnt help), I hesitatingly asked about cylinder studs - I say hesitatingly because the old fella there behind the counter has a clear distain for scooters and, I think, amateur hobbyists like myself, however to his credit, he went off to have a search through his Aladdin's cave of vintage motorcycle parts.
To my delight he came back with a brand new M6 x 120 stud (albeit a little narrower on the shank).
"Wow! Thats great" I said, "Thank you, what is it off?"
"A Yamaha" he replied
"What model of Yamaha?" I asked thinking it would be a useful reference for anyone else foolish enough to snap a Manurhin cylinder stud.
He looked me in the eye, "Just a Yamaha" he said pointedly.
He is a wise old man and I am not worthy to push him further. As I left the shop £2.40 lighter, I think we were secretly both pleased with the transaction and if I am not mistaken I am sure there was a twinkle in his eye.

Another Manurhin on the UK market

2011-06-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

Only a few days after the Taunton located DKW Hobby was sold on eBay for £360, A Hampshire located Manurhin comes up for sale on eBay. Whats going on? Is it that time of year when people clear their sheds out?

I was attracted to this one as is was a Manurhin (and not a DKW) - again there were lots of parts missing.... but lots of parts that I could do with.
I decided that £295 was as much as I dared bid without having to ask the wifes permission first.
After a week of 17 bids by 6 people, it sold for £297. Damn - missed it by 3 quid, I am going to have to man up a bit and take a nagging on the chin in future.

Once again its good to see that Manurhins are coming out of dusty sheds, and who knows perhaps it means more parts about to come onto the market

Another shed find sees the light of day

2011-06-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

For a week no one seemed to have noticed this bargain on eBay (well thats what I thought). Being no bids, I had planned to slip a last minute offer in and do the seller a favour by taking it off their hands for them. What an idiot I am.

To be fair, this wasn't really the right scooter for me - its a DKW Hobby after-all, but it did have a handful of bits that would be useful to me, AND it was in the UK so pick up costs would be reasonable, so despite the fact that I would have to sell 75% of this scooter, I was rather excited that it was on the market and with no bidding action happening. Bernie had contacted me in the week to say he had seen it and was possibly interested, but I sensed that he probably had other projects to finish first?;-)

So Sunday came and the auction was within a couple of hours of closing, and I was convinced it was mine, but blow me, other people had ideas of their own. A little bidding frenzy saw 5 people thrash it out over 11 bids with a closing bid of £360. I was amazed!

I was amazed firstly that 5 people wanted it..... who are those people?
and I was amazed that it went for as much as it did - Way above what I think its worth in that condition; I can buy a complete manurhin for 380 euros in France at the moment. It made me think that perhaps my original bike was a bargain.
Congratulations to the winning bidder and I wish them the best of luck with their project (and would be happy to hear from them if they have any bits for sale that I'm after)

To buy or not to buy?

2011-06-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Bernie sent me a link to this Manurhin for sale, suggesting I should cut my losses and save the ripped knuckles and loss of sleep and just buy it.

As advertised on www.cotswold-classics.co.uk

I must admit it is tempting. At just the cost of a handlebar switch under a thousand pounds, I think this is a great price. It makes me think that my own project is really just a hobby and certainly not an investment. I am currently up to £321 on my spend, and there is plenty more to go - the powder coating on my Vespa cost £300 alone! So there is not much money to be made in resuscitating an incomplete non-runner (I should have listened to my dads advice who told me to never buy a non-runner)

I tried to justify to Bernie my reasons for not simply buying a running machine. I didn't have a rational argument (and I hope my wife never puts me to the test on this - she always wins our arguments) other than;

I like a mechanical challenge - it keeps my mind occupied
I like an excuse to tinker in my garage - it is my escape and is good for the soul
I've rather enjoyed talking with the people I've met so far on this project - I don't think I'd find the same community simply by just being an owner. I think you have to earn your badge :-)

The early bird catches the worm

2011-06-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

But sadly this bird wasn't early enough.

I nearly choked on my cup of tea when I fell across this advert on a French website.
A Manurhin rear light! my understanding is that these are as rare as rocking horse stuff.
I excitedly fired off an email to the seller, and was bitterly disappointed when I received the reply "I'm sorry, its too late"
I guess I'm going to have to get up earlier to get these worms.

Beside the fact that this chap was including 2 honkers in his sale, I am intrigued that he suggests that the light cluster might also suit a MotoBecane or a Bernardet - is this true? maybe I could widen my searching?

The elusive woodruff

2011-06-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

Look closer.

Look closer at that technical drawing of the flywheel and crankshaft arrangement, and you will see that there is an item No. 14 seemingly pointing to nothing. Stupidly, I have been simply ignoring this. I have been scouring the drawings for something that looks like a woodruff key, and not seeing it, i have simply ignored all labels and parts ID.

That is until Roy sent me a parts catalogue.

It would seem that I have all technical exploded diagrams, but with the addition of Roys parts lists, I now have a complete picture, and that item No.14 is not just an empty line. There is in fact a tiny little component at the end of that line, and it is identified in the parts manual as;

Roy mentioned (though he wasn't sure) something about perhaps a little ball bearing that sat in a depression on the shaft. So perhaps there shouldn't be a woodruff key in my shaft after all.
I wonder what a "V positioning magnetic cotter" might look like? And how would I know if mine should be a 14a - "Positioning pin magnetic cotter"? (I dont seem to be able to identify what part No. 103 306 is)

I have a Carburettor

2011-06-13T02:39:00.000-07:00

Hoorah!
I have got a carburettor!
Reg put me on to Roy, and Roy had a bunch of parts that he was happy to sell to me in order to recoup some of his expenses so far on his own Manurhin project.

Roy has clearly been researching and working on his project for a while and had a lot of information to share. We spent a good hour chatting on the phone before getting down to the dirty business of trading.
The fantastic thing was that not only did Roy have a Carb, but he had a Beltomatic ignition breaker as well (that curious spring arrangement on the end of the driver pulley)
I was very happy to agree to his suggestion of £70 and he included a photocopy set of the Manurhin parts manual (in English!)

Now i actually have one of these spring devices in my hand, I can see how it works and actually if push had come to shove, I could easily have replicated this with a home made device. However, having the real thing is a delight. I must say when first saw the broken bit on my engine I was quite disappointed - I thought that this was going to be virtually impossible for me to source - especially as most bits I'd seen for sale on places like eBay were of the DKW Hobby lever type arrangement.

I am starting to deduce that perhaps my Scooter is a little younger than the 1957 that I'd originally assumed. Im not sure how or why I came up with 1957 in the first place - I think Rui had written it in the eBay ad when I bought the scooter in the first place, but I dont think he was in any better position to assume it was a 1957 machine.
My change of mind about its date of manufacture is coming now down to this french designed beltomatic ignition control device. Manurhin took the licence to build these scooters from DKW in 1957. They only manufactured for a few years, but the development of the ignition cut-out switch safety feature (as opposed to the DKW clutch lever) was some time into the manufacture of the french scooters - So maybe my bike is more like a 1959 model?
I think I shall have to get onto the Vintage Motor Scooter Club to help me verify the age of this bike

Complete with the carburettor is the right angle mounting pipe (manifold) to the cylinder barrel, and the rubber breather pipe (complete with filter) that reaches round from the carb to the engine casing.

The rubber pipe has got some perished cracks in it, but nothing that cant be fixed with some rubber repair compound

I was so excited that Roy had a Carburettor to sell that I didn't even ask him what sort, or what condition. So it was a nice little surprise to find that its a Gurtner Carb.

Once production was underway in France, the Gurtner J14-454 was the carb of choice for Manurhin. DKW Hobbys were fitted with Bing 4-14-1 carburettors and it would appear that most carbs that Ive seen for sale for Manurhin/Hobby are Bings.

Incidentally, I did find (via the very helpful Constance at BingPower in Germany) a chap called Klaus Faak, a "dealer in oldtimer spare parts" at Faak-Tillmanns, who told me he could supply a new Bing carb to my specifications for 350euros. While this sort of price is way beyond my budget, its good to know there is a fall back.

I dont know what the condition is inside the carb (or if indeed its ever been robbed of jets and float) but I do see I am going to have to do a little work on the fuel-in banjo which should fit over the little brass thread in the center of this photo

All in all - Excellent news. I am very excited. I am getting closer :-)

Feeling inspired

2011-06-13T01:12:00.000-07:00

A contact through Bernie lead me to Jon. I chased the lead in the hope that Jon might be selling some Manurhin parts, but alas, it turns out Jon was himself searching for parts - A recoil spring for his starter. This spring was the last bit he needed to get his scooter up and running! (makes my own project seem like a very long and arduous journey).

Jon acquired his 1959 "Manurhin Hobby" through a friend of a friend. Originally bought new in Hastings, It was last taxed in 1973 - and (due to commitment to other projects) Jon is keen to get it going with as little intervention as possible (it needed a new belt drive) and to leave it in its 'as found' condition (which I rather like the look of).

I really like the look of Jons scooter - with the original paintwork. I am envious of finding a bike with everything on it, and Im intrigued about that bit of trim down the length of the body. I don't think I've seen one of those before.

Flywheel starter sprocket

2011-06-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Now I have a starter mechanism, my worries have turned to how it engages with the flywheel.
Those ratchet teeth surely cant be the genuine article can they? Why is it made of two plates (one on top of the other)? The two plates are riveted onto the flywheel and have clearly had a good old bashing at some stage. Not only are the teeth damaged but the whole assembly has been knocked off center.

The scribed lines in the photo are concentric with the crankshaft and illustrate just how far off center the plates are. You can see also that the plates don't even align with each other!

I think I am pretty well committed to getting this bike back on the road now, so for a little light relief this evening I decided to drill those rivets out and remove the knackered ratchet sprocket in order to measure up and make new.

The two sprocket plates (I'm not sure what to call these fellows) appear to be more than a home made bodge - perhaps they are as fitted at the factory?

I could if I wanted simply turn these plates over, swap their order and rivet them back as is - the backsides arent too damaged and I am sure it would be "good enough" and certainly "better". Perhaps this was the original design intention? to be able to make good when they wore out?

Im not going to do this however. I think I will make a new single sprocket out of solid 7.5mm steel plate

So I think I have a solution for this bit.
BUT I am still confused about the fitting of the flywheel to the crankshaft.
The flywheel has a keyway in it, but the crankshaft doesn't.
Of course the alignment of the flywheel (with its integral breaker points cam) and crankshaft position needs to be accurate and secure in order to create the spark at exactly the right time so I am surprised there is no keyway dowl.
There is however an odd 'spot' on the crankshaft. Look closer and its a little hole - but no deeper than maybe a millimeter. I wondered if this might be a hole for a location pin (that in this case has sheered off)...... or am I just fantasizing? maybe its just pitting?

Looking at the exploded diagram for the engine, I am none the wiser.

Searching Searching Searching

2011-06-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

The interesting thing about this project is that so far I don't seem to be getting my hands dirty very often. Usually with a 'project' I like to slip out to the garage in the evenings while the family are watching some rubbish on the TV, but so far most of my free evenings seem to be in front of a computer screen searching for engine bits.

I've been searching websites for parts AND for people. When I am not bidding on some parts, I am sending speculative emails to people who might have something to offer (in either parts, knowledge or contacts) and I have been delighted by the lovely response I've been having from all sorts of people. I love the way someone will say "I think I know of someone who....... " and a brand new connection will emerge.
So far I have perhaps a dozen 'Manurhin contacts' in my list. Some I'm still awaiting replies on, but many have been really very helpful and interested. I wont share too much detail about these people on this blog (other than the fact that I appear to have a little collection of Ron's, Ray's, and Reg's), but I am very happy to facilitate connections for anyone who might be interested. And this makes me wonder yet again if there is (or should be) a Manurhin owners register or club. Everyone seems to have a number of contacts, but no-one has them all joined up, and many of the people I have spoken to so far are also searching for missing parts for their own projects. It would seem to me to be very easy to set up a little network where we could trade parts amongst ourselves and help to look out for each others missing parts.

A conversation with one such chap tonight has indeed come up with some vital parts for my engine :-) - more on that in a later post

As much as I love searching for Manurhin stuff on the internet, I am very much looking forward to doing some work on this bike that requires me to get some oil under my fingernails again :-)

Starter mechanism

2011-06-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've got a starter!
Bought it from a German seller on eBay (obviously someone who was prepared to ship to the UK this time)
I made an offer of 30 euros and including the postage, I paid about £40. I was delighted.

The rubber / spring trunk thing needs tidying up and it needs a new cable and handle, but otherwise it all seems there and I spent a lovely hour stripping and cleaning it (though the photos shown here are 'as received').

Im still not sure if I can rebuild this engine one bit at a time. Perhaps I will have to purchase a complete engine and work from there - however I felt that I ought to do something, and when this part came up at a not unreasonable price, I went for it.

I guess that eventually, in my attempt to bring this all together, I will accumulate a whole bunch of 'spare' parts that I can either keep or sell

Rear wheel investigation

2011-06-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

When stripping the frame down the other day I was curious as to why the rear brake cable was secured to the frame on the opposite side to the brake drum. My arrangement has the brake drum on the off-side of the wheel and the chain sprocket on the near-side of the wheel - and yet the brake cable was secured to the near-side of the frame. The wheel had clearly been removed in its recent years as it was loose, there was no chain, and the brake cable was not attached. I thought nothing of it and assumed that someone had simply not reassembled it correctly.

Looking at the technical drawings, I think the rear wheel should have the chain sprocket and the brake drum on the same side of the wheel. So what have I got?

I stripped the wheel down to investigate, and it is clear that what I have is not what is in the technical drawing. Was there a variation that I dont have drawings for? or have i got a bodged rear wheel?

The brake assemble looks to be all there and in good order, but the (galvanised!) sprocket had been bolted on with home-shortened bolts.

I was quite enthusiastic about the bike first thing this morning, but now I feel depressed again - perhaps this bike is missing too many things to ever be hopeful of bringing it back to life

The network continues to expand

2011-06-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

I love the way this project is blossoming. Every now and then another conversation blooms into something fascinating.

I had a little flurry of email conversation the other day with Alex, a Frenchman somewhere in France. I discovered his intention to sell his 2 Manurhins via a French classified ads website. Sadly he didnt have any parts to sell, only complete bikes and his suggestion of 5000 Euros for the 2 was way out of my league. He asked me to make an offer for one of them but not wanting to offend, I kindly declined.

And then I had an email reply from Bernie at the British Two Stroke Club. I'd asked him what he knew about Manurhins. He was most apologetic "I am afraid as far as your scooter is concerned i am completely in the dark as far as info goes, I'm sorry but i have only info on bikes". No need for apologies Bernie - At least he knows now that should he stumble over Manurhin people or parts, he can direct them my way.

Reg's fabulous Manurhin is an inspiration.... For sale I think!

Out of the blue, I recieved an MMS message from my brother (who happens to be rebuilding a Garelli Monaco Capri) with a photo of a classified ad from someone wanting to sell a Manurhin. I had no idea how old the ad was, but I called the number anyway and as luck would have it I got through to a fabulous chap called Reg who was both interested in my project and interesting to listen to about his own project. He hadn't sold his bike yet and at £1200 it sadly wasn't something I could buy. Reg didnt have any parts for sale, but he did have information and contacts that he would be happy to share with me.
Interestingly, Reg was the first person I had spoken with who could/would share with me his experience of actually riding a Manurhin - He said it was a very easy and pleasant experience - which is interesting because the chaps at Icenicam would appear to disagree......

I fell across this fabulous review and history of the Manurhin - It make me laugh and wince at the same time

Patience is a virtue

2011-05-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

Everyday I've been putting a couple of drops of penetrating oil onto the crankshaft/flywheel interface. And everyday I've been giving it a few knocks with a hammer to see if it will separate.

Ideally I would have deployed a proper flywheel extractor but alas I didn't have one of this size to fit (the Vespa PX extractor is slightly too big) and I didn't have facility to turn my own so I have had to resort to the poor-mans bodge and rely on lifting the whole assembly up by the flywheel and hitting smartly and squarely on the crankshaft end in the hope that the engine would drop away under its own weight.
This is really a two man job; one to lift the flywheel, and one to hold the drift while hitting with a hammer. As much as i tried to persuade my daughters to come and help me for a moment, they always seemed to have more important things to do (wash hair, watch tv, read magazine etc) and so I was left to my own devices..... and a device I made up.

I used a bit of welding rod to make a little support frame to hold the drift upright, leaving me to lift the engine with my left hand and hammer with my right hand.
Every day a few more taps and every day a bit more penetrating oil.
And today, with only the gentlest of hammering, the flywheel and the crankshaft separated. Beautiful.

So what did I find? Nothing unusual I don't think. Its pretty grubby (and sandy) in there, but it all looks to be there.

The starter sprocket attached to the flywheel on the other hand is most odd. This looks like the work of tinkerer.... and perhaps its going to need the work of another tinkerer to make good again.

I really hope that I get to find and buy another engine some day so I can make good at least one runner.

Chassis number update

2011-05-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

The plot thickens.
While stripping the bike down and revealing the whole frame, I've discovered 2 (yes 2!) more series of numbers stamped on the chassis. So this means that there are 3 sets of different numbers stamped on my frame.

At the rear of the frame there is a strengthening flange. On one side is the number that I originally discovered (by comparison to the other 2 numbers i have since discovered, this number is a much smaller font and much more lightly stamped in) "0301 20181 00"

Now that I could see all over the frame, I found on the other side of this rear flange another number (larger font and more heavily stamped in) "19143"

And then up at the front end on the flange between the headstock and the down-tube, I found yet another number (large font and heavily stamped) "30453"

So what does this all mean? I hope I find someone who can clarify it for me.

Down to basics

2011-05-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

I still don't know what to do with this bike. Should I continue with trying to get it on the road? or should I simply get rid of it and buy an old Vespa? (I love Vespas)
I sat miserably in the kitchen pondering and wasting my time.

My plan of a few days ago was to do nothing with the bike until I knew I had a working engine (without which the bike is pretty well worthless) - there is no point simply creating a box of bits if I am not going to progress with the project and so I've been tinkering with the engine; but taking it very gently as I don't want to damage anything on this rare old thing. The flywheel is still refusing to shift so I am patiently soaking it with penetrating oil and waiting. The trouble is, this leaves me with nothing to do but browse the internet for knowledge and hopelessly bid for expensive bits on German ebay

And so I decided to drag the scooter out of the shed to inspect it. Now that Ive started to read the technical diagrams and see what people are selling on ebay, I thought it would be useful to have a good look over the bike to see what was what.
So there I was, out in the garden with the sunshine on my back, poking around this lovely looking old barn find. And I was feeling good. So good in fact, I made the rash decision (against all my previous better judgement) to strip the whole thing down. And boy, did I enjoy myself! I would have happily paid £200 for an afternoons activity like that.

I tried to be sensible about the whole thing - there was still a chance that I could reassemble it and sell it as is, so I took lots of photos, and bagged up in sealable sandwich bags all the nuts and bolts. And eventually I got the bike down to 4 or 5 key parts (front end, chassis, bodywork, rear end) I sloshed some white spirit around the oily bits to clean it down and make it more pleasant to handle but I was surprised just how little oil there was on the bike. My 20 year old Vespa by comparison was caked in cruddy oil. As an aside I also noted how little mud (and rust) there was inside the mudguards - I suspected that the bike hadnt long had a respray before it was taken off the road and put in the barn.

I think the thing that compelled me to strip the bike down was the simple face that it was in such good condition. The chassis has no more than surface rust on it. There is a slight bend on one of the outriders, but I reckon a half hour in the vice with that, and I could (if I wanted) get the frame, and the front and rear forks to a powder coaters for a shotblast and black powdercoat and I would have the start of a very nice rolling chassis to build upon (or even sell)
The body work is looking good too. I am amazed and delighted!

By the end of the afternoon my mind had swung right round and I had made the decision to continue with the restoration of this project. The engine and electrics are going to need some pursuing, but the bike itself is sound and is going to look fabulous :-)

Making more connections

2011-05-29T02:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago while browsing the web trying to find out more about my machine I came across the DKW owners website and dropped them a speculative email to see if they knew of anyone into Manurhins.

I had a very nice reply from Richard who started off by saying;
"These scooters are few and far between in our club and in the UK as a whole I think"

Like everyone else I talk to he also suggested ebay (France, Germany and Holland) but he also suggested getting to the Netley Marsh Autojumble in September - which sounds like a jolly nice weekend away.

Another potential line of enquiry that Richard opened for me was the fact that Manurhins were imported into the UK by "AFN Ltd" - I did some google searching but didn't get to anything very useful - However, I was interested to read that AFN was Archibald Frazer-Nash (he of the fabulous 6 cylinder chain-driven prewar racing cars) AFN went on to import and assemble BMWs, and finally got sold to Porsche. While the link to importing and selling European vehicles seems possible that they might have dealt Scooters too, I find it rather incredulous that a company would have precision sports cars AND pathetic scooters in the same portfolio.

Richard closes by teasing me with "there should be someone out there breaking them" - Arrgh - another night of tossing and turning wondering how on earth I am going to find these people

Grrr eBay

2011-05-28T01:55:00.000-07:00

Up early to make sure I was on the last second eBay bidding on a DKW Hobby carburettor. There have been 4 or 5 of us bidding over the past few days for this item which was located in Germany.

For a while I was highest bidder and was very excited, but late last night I received an email to say that I'd been outbid - so that was me set for a restless night while I fretted over what my maximum bid should be (A carburettor - and this one looked in good nick with the rubber breather pipe too - would be a major step forward for my engine) And so I was up and on the computer with a half hour to spare and I placed my bid.
But horrors, I got the message that the seller had opted to NOT sell the part outside of Germany. What!? I had been bidding for the last few days and never received that message before - in fact my bids had been accepted and were indeed helping to raise the bidding game.
Had this seller decided at the last moment to change his options on who to sell to? surely not.
Does the ebay automated messaging only kick in at the eleventh hour? surely not.
Have I got to set up an alias ebay account in Germany in order to be in with a chance of winning? surely not.

Whatever the case, I was pissed. Winning a carb today would have put a spring in my step. As it is now I shall have to mope around growling at everyone - Come on eBay, get your act together, you are making my family's life a misery

To ebay or Not to ebay....... that is the question

2011-05-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am rather encouraged to see a number of parts coming up on ebay (particularly German ebay) - this means that there are people out there willing to sell bits that I might need.

Frustratingly though, there appears to be a bit of a market for these parts! I am bidding on a couple of parts right now and Dangit! at least another 2 people are after the same bits as me! The bikes are rare, but clearly only because everyone and his dog has one in his garage for renovation!

I had an idea that we (the Manurhin/DKW Hobby rebuilders) should get together and share our resources (and parts) rather than simply keep outbidding each other. There doesn't seem to be a Manurhin Owners Club..... should I start one? I would be member number 1.

Of course another approach could be for me to get shot of the whole bike to these other buyers and make a tidy profit in doing so. I reckon by current ebay asking prices, if i were to strip my bike and sell the components individually, I could easily clear £500 - That would be double my investment made in 2 weeks.
I guess the real question I should ask myself is, "am I a businessman, or an engineer?"

British Two Stroke Club

2011-05-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

Yay! my membership arrived this morning.
I am now an officially paid up member of the British Two Stroke Club - I feel quite cool. Ive found the key to the door of another fascinating world of enthusiastic people :-)

I must admit though, when I joined I thought it was a two-stroke club IN Britain, however their newsletter has the following strapline;
"The BTSC welcomes all two stroke enthusiasts, and all two stroke machines, especially those of British manufacture"

So perhaps their emphasis is on British two-strokes? Whatever, I take comfort in the fact that they say they "welcome all".... and hope that they might be able to give me some directions and leads for my continuing journey.

Engine drive belt pulleys

2011-05-27T03:28:00.000-07:00

I spend my evenings poring over printouts of the technical diagrams that I am accumulating from various websites. Trouble is, this then leaves my mind tossing and turning over unanswered questions, and so it was up with the lark to get an hour of engine investigation in before work. I am still confused about this elusive 'Beltomatic' that I read about here and there.

I have been trying to get the flywheel off the crankshaft, but it really doesn't want to budge so I am leaving it to soak in penetrating oil, and turned my attention to the belt drive side of the engine.
Concerned about possible left-hand threads (I miss a Haynes Manual) I calculated from the rotation of the rear wheel back through the drive-train that the retaining nuts and bolts here should all be standard right-hand threads - I was right, and it wasn't long before I had the adjustable pulleys off and on the bench.

So what did I find?
Well I appear to have the 'triangular' lobed drive shafts that are identified in the tech drawing as a 'possibility' - does this provide any insight into the rarity of the engine? or the place / date of manufacture?
I was amazed to find that main bearing oil seal looks like new! no oil or crud (the photo shows exactly as I found it) unlike the transmission box oil seal that looks a bit gunky

transmission shaft is of the triangular lobe type

Beautifully clean main bearing oil seal in the background

Backside of drive pulley - flyweights all sound

Outboard design of drive pulley gives clue to the engine age and model?

Note the triangular lobed driven shaft 'option'

So an interesting hour. I think I am understanding this a bit more. BUT i still cant fathom that peculiar assembly in the bottom right hand corner of the diagram (this is all missing from my engine) What does it do? (I think its a safety 'dissengagement' device - eg a sort of neutral for when starting the engine) But how does it work?

Beltomatic

2011-05-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Ive been studying the technical diagram sheets on Cedrics website, and I think that what I have here on my bike is a "Beltomatic" engine.

Im not sure if this is good or bad.

On first sight it would appear that the arrangement shown in the top diagram has a very complicated arrangement of spacers and washers - originally I dismissed this as just plain silly, but I'm now starting to think that these might be an arrangement of electrical insulators.... could the Beltomatic be electrically controlled?
Look closer at the picture - that looks like an electrical wire, not a bowden cable as in the bottom diagram.
Certainly, the full diagrams include a handlebar 'lever' in the lower diagram arrangement, and a handlebar 'switch' in the upper diagram arrangement.
Is my engine supposed to be electrically controlled???
Did the Manurhin have a Beltomatic engine, and the DKW have the lever engine? If so then maybe I cant simply look for DKW Hobby parts. Maybe I have got to start searching for beltomatic parts..... and so far I havent been able to find ANYTHING on the web about Beltomatics
Oh dear this is going to get even more complicated

Looking for parts and knowledge

2011-05-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Whilst I cant find many parts for sale, I keep coming across valuable knowledge resources for Manurhin mechanicals.

This one at ScooterManiac.org looks like a complete service manual.
I wonder if anyone might be up for translating to English?

And there are a number of inspiring and encouraging youtube videos

But there are some videos that make me feel so much better about the bits that I do have!

and in the event of me never finding the parts for my engine, I guess I could always go down this route

Research

2011-05-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

That poor old neglected engine is playing on my mind. There seems to be so much of it missing.
I wondered if I could still find the parts to make it complete so I spent the evening browsing the web, and discovered quite a lot.

Rui (the chap that I had bought the bike from) had suggested searching for "DKW Hobby"parts as they were pretty well the same as Manurhin parts, and he sent me a link to a German ebay search, which popped up a whole bunch of stuff. I was surprised that I hadnt found these bits myself when I'd been scouring ebay - I went on to learn that there are a number of settings in the ebay advanced search that opened up lots of international items that aren't necessarily shown in standard searches.
So this was exciting - There was a Carburetor for £50, a gasket set for £20, a pull starter and cowl for £50 and even a complete engine for £200. If I didn't dwell on the potential cost of all this, I was rather encouraged.
[as an aside, I'm feeling a little hesitant in showing too much enthusiasm (or should that read 'desperation') for parts up for sale - I'm worried that my projected eagerness might shadow my limited budget, and a seller might not give me the price negotiation I'm going to need if I'm going to get this bike on the road]

I dug deeper into the internet and found a fantastic collection of Manurhin documents and web-links. I was particularly grateful for the scans of a Manurhin workshop manual, and I contacted the website owner, Cedric, to thank him for the resources he was sharing. He came straight back to me with lots of suggestions and recommendations, including the exact same suggestion as Rui for looking for DKW Hobby parts on German ebay.
In addition, he went on to say "For the engine's internal, you can replace most of the parts with karting parts (they have pistons in any size, since as the engine wears, they increase the size of the cylinder and use a slightly bigger piston)" - which might be a useful tip for any vintage scooter restorer
As much as I dont want to admit it, I am starting to think that Cedric might well be right when he says;
"Your best strategy is to try to find another one to complete your scooter (cost of a running one in great shape - 900 euros as info)"
I shall think about this (though certainly not ask the wife for her opinion) - but its interesting to note that a running Manurhin is worth nearly a thousand euros.

Whatever the cost or conclusions, I am starting to love this journey of meeting interesting and interested people! :-)

So it looks like I might be able to find some of the parts I'm going to need to get this machine back on the road. I managed to resist the temptation to bid on anything for the moment. I want to gather more information and find more experts and enthusiasts to ensure I'm going down the right track before committing any more money. Ive sent off application forms to join The VMSC (Vintage Motor Scooter Club) and The BTSC (British Two Stroke Club) in the hope that they might give me some useful leads and contacts. I am especially keen to get a clear identity for my scooter from the chassis and engine numbers - especially to help me understand what sort of engine Ive got; it appears to be different to many of the photos and schematics Ive seen.......

The numbers

2011-05-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is what I was looking for today. Engine and Chassis numbers.
Now I have a reference that will allow me to talk with the experts and enthusiasts

Chassis / Frame no. 0301 20181 00

[UPDATE 29may - Ive found more chassis numbers ]

Engine no. 20486

Im not sure if or how these numbers might assist, but there are very distinct reference numbers cast into the barrel inlet and exhaust manifolds

Inlet manifold no. 9.300.11102.00


Exhaust manifold no. MR SACM (though Im not absolutely sure about that S)

So just for the record;

Chassis / Frame no. 0301 20181 00 [UPDATE 29may - Ive found more chassis numbers ]
Engine no. 20486
Inlet manifold no. 9.300.11102.00
Exhaust manifold no. MR SACM

Initial Engine inspection

2011-05-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

This is a tiny little engine (74cc) and as such not a problem to remove from the bike (especially as quite a few parts are missing from it :-( The most obvious thing being a carburetor.
Its clearly had some abuse over the years - but I guess I shouldnt be surprised for a scooter of more than half a century old. There are some damaged fins on the head, and the lug on the exhaust manifold has been cracked off

The gearbox (though technically its not a 'gear change box' - its more of a transmission box) appears to still be holding oil. On the flywheel side we can see that the cowl and starter mechanism is missing

And the starter engagement ratchet gear is quite damaged - this is a strange double layered arrangement that is riveted on - is it original?

The variable belt transmission appears to be in ok condition. Note; When I made my 'winning' bid on ebay for this bike, I had no idea that it had this strange 'automatic', gearless and clutchless arrangement.
Im not sure if there should be a cover over this side of the engine - I havent yet seen a cover in any of the examples I've found on the internet

Madeningly, the variable belt lever (I have yet to work out how this works) has been snapped off

When I picked the bike up yesterday from the seller, we tried to turn the engine over - it wouldn't budge and so I assumed it was seized. However, once on the bench and dripping in WD40, I found that the head and barrel lifted easily (in fact from what i could see the piston looked good - though i haven't fully removed the barrel yet). One of the head/barrel studs is snapped.
It turns out that the jammed engine was due to corrosion between the flywheel and stator.

I need to do some more investigation into the state of the engine, but Im starting to wonder if it was once a "spares or repairs" donor vehicle - there is an awful lot missing (though on the up side there is still a fair amount left). If the statement is true that the Manurhin Concorde was the 3rd most popular scooter after Vespa and Lambretta, there could be a chance that these missing parts could be replaced - and that lifts my spirits a little - Ive clearly got to get talking to the specialists and enthusiasts - and most probably in French or German.
I wondered also if I might even be able to fabricate some of these missing / damaged bits myself? Do I want to simply return the bike to the road, or do I want to return the bike to the road in as original a condition as possible?

I keep going hot and cold on this now. One moment I like the challenge, the next I think its one step beyond hope.
I wonder if I could acquire a complete engine??

What have I got? (and NOT got)

2011-05-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

I was keen to have a bit of an explore today, so camera in hand, this is what I discovered

cobwebs verify its a 'barn-find' - good to see the aluminum hole trim still there

I love this rear end. Though I suspect that isnt an original rear light. Saddles knackered

No dinks or dents! (though that floor pan is a bit kinked) Note the lack of starter pull

Headstock appears to have been hand painted, but the speedo is in good nick

Missing headlamp glass and Manurhin badge, but body looking good

Floor pan sound and runners dont look bad either (though the OS outer aluminum strip is missing)

Dented leg-shield but its no more than a pull over the knee to fix that

Cowl open to reveal the running gear

Missing starter mechanism and engine cowl (hmm big disappointment)

View under the floor - surface rust only? I have yet to have a poke

Odd levers? and no electrical switches

So on first close inspection I'm both a little excited and a little disappointed. There appears to be an awful lot missing - trouble is I don't know exactly what is missing!
Interestingly, the bodywork appears remarkably sound - a little surface rust here and there, but no rot. By contrast to my recent Vespa rebuild, it would seem that this new project is going to be heavy on the mechanicals and light on the tinwork

Before I make any major decisions, I think I'll get the engine out for a closer inspection

A little history lesson

2011-05-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

I guess I ought to find out more about this odd looking scooter.
Thank heavens for the internet and google.

Paraphrased from wikipedia
Manurhin, officially known as Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin, in Haut-Rhin, France, started out by manufacturing pistols in 1952
Manhurin also produced the German DKW Hobby scooter by incorporating locally made components and rebranding it as the Manurhin MR75 in Europe and the Concord in the UK. According to Bonhams (auctioners) the MR 75 “was constructed to a high standard and must have been one of the first motorcycles to be painted electrostatically, a process commonly known as ‘powder coating’. When DKW ceased production of the Hobby, Manurhin continued with its version, which in 1957 occupied third place in the European scooter sales chart behind Lambretta and Vespa"

Paraphrased from the 'motorbike-search-engine' website
Dampf-Kraft Wagen (German: steam-powered vehicle) or DKW is a historic car and motorcycle marque. In 1916, the Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen founded a factory in Saxony, Germany, to produce steam fittings. In the same year, he attempted to produce a steam-driven car, called the DKW. Although unsuccessful, he made a two-stroke toy engine in 1919, called Des Knaben Wunsch "a boy's desire". He also put a slightly modified version of this engine into a motorcycle and called it Das Kleine Wunder "a little marvel". This was the real beginning of the DKW brand: by the 1930s, DKW was the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer.
DKW motorcycles used 2-stroke engines which were technically advanced; the best-known one in the UK is the RT 125. As reparations after World War II, the design drawings of the RT125 were given to Harley-Davidson in the US and BSA in the UK. The HD version was known as the Hummer, while BSA used them for the Bantam. Designs from the DKW 2-stroke engine was also used in the Ariel Arrow and Leader.
Vintage DKW motorcycles enjoy an excellent reputation for design and engineering and are sought-after machines today. Spares are obtainable from Germany (some components were used in later MZ motorcycles, which makes spares availability much easier). There’s an active club in Germany, and Bernie of the British Two-Stroke Club runs an enthusiastic section for German machines in the UK.

So it looks like if I'm going to pursue this project I am once again going to have to call upon Googles services to help me translate all the French and German reference sites

And just to encourage me a little; I couldn't help but smile (and maybe nod a little in agreement) when I saw The Coolist say "Fans of vintage Vespas should take note, because this 1956 Manurhin Scooter will cool the pants off of your little Italian Stallion"

Collecting my new project

2011-05-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Now you have to remember, I bought this bike because I liked the look of it. I had no idea what it was or if it was complete. I simply thought it looked nice.
Some people might think this is a foolish and perhaps shallow way to buy something, and some people might say I had more money than sense.
I, however, think this is a jolly good way to choose a project. If you are going to working on a project for fun, surely its better to be working on something you like, rather than something that might be a good investment but isnt actually particularly interesting or stimulating.

This said however, it was still a nail-biting 2 hour drive in a hired transit down to St Albans to collect my new project.
Was it complete? The ebay description said "seems to be all there." - "SEEMS" kept ringing in my head!
Was it genuine? The ebay description said "came from a barn clear out and there are no docs" - Barn Find!?? Surely there are no more 'barn finds' these days?
Was it a rust bucket? Visions of rotten Vespa floor pans still haunted me.

Well would you believe it? it turns out that my scooter was indeed part of a genuine barn find. It was amongst 40 odd scooters and mopeds found in a barn in Scotland - How exciting would that be to discover!? Apparently, many years ago a local number plate dealer started buying cheap bikes and stripping of them of their valuable registration numbers - the bikes themselves were simply discarded and piled up in a barn.
The chap who had bought this job lot and was now selling them was a complete scooter enthusiast - it was very exciting to meet him. His intention was to buy and sell most of them so that by the end of the whole deal he would be left with his 3 favourite scooters (in effect for 'free').

My bitten nails weren't completely unfounded - It was clear that some parts were missing. My heart dropped a little when I saw the space where a carburetor should be :-( BUT on the up side - It WAS a lovely looking thing :-) What made my wife say it looked like a camel, actually made be think 'beautiful'.

I think the pleasure was worth a couple of hundred quid.

The question now, as I drove the 100 miles back home with a Manurhin in the back of my van, was;
Do I keep it and work on it? or shall I get rid of it and cut my losses now?

Breaking the news

2011-05-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

So HOW and WHEN to tell the wife that I'd spent money on an unknown entity that could well take up a fair amount of my time?
I appeared to have let slip the news to everyone else but my wife so later at a large family gathering i was getting lots of winks and nods to encourage me to tell her - I think they all just wanted to see me get into trouble.
I made a rash decision and blurted out "Laurie Ive bought you a present"
I dont think the burst of laughter from everyone else helped my case much at this point.
Seriously I did think it would be a nice present - of course i would have to do all the renovation work on it, but surely she would enjoy riding it. wouldn't she?
I showed her a picture of the bike. "It looks like a camel" she exclaimed
I was a little taken aback at this disinterest and before I knew it, my foolishness had been posted up on facebook

I am sure she will come to love it eventually - after all she did with me

Oh Bugger

2011-05-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

Why is it that all my projects seem to start with "oh bugger"?
I'm not so sure as to what I'm most scared about this time; the challenge, the cost, or the wife (who I havent yet told about what ive done)

Having recently finished completely rebuilding a 1991 Vespa 125PX, Ive rather fallen in love with it. And to further cement my bond with it, I rode it to Italy and back. There was no reason in the World as to why I should ever want another scooter in my life. With my Vespa, I am complete.
However, it turns out that while I was blogging about the Vespa rebuild and Italian ride, people were actually reading my gushing love for my PX125, so much so that since then 3 friends have gone out and bought themselves scooters, and 2 more are just about to order theirs too - Falling in love with scooters is catching!
Now one of these people happens to be my brother, John, and he seemed to get a little carried away with things and ended up buying an old scooter that I'd never heard of - A Garelli Capri Monaco. Madness I thought - why would anyone ever want a rare old rust bucket that you cant get parts for?

But remember this is still a 'scooter' and scooters appear to have some sort of hypnotic effect on people - regardless of their oddities. Over the following few weeks while I was enjoying buzzing around on my PX, I found I was becoming increasingly interested in the progress of this Garelli basket case - John was doing a good job of slowly bringing it back to life, and in a strange turn of events, he was now inspiring me to think about older scooters too. And so to ebay.

The trouble is with the ebay iphone app is its too darn easy to search and place bids. I simply searched for 'vintage scooter' - and lo and behold! someone was selling a little collection of "barn find" restoration projects. I liked the shape of one of them - though I'd never heard of the make - and I bid.

I was in the Waitrose fruit isle with my dad when I recieved the confirmation email telling me that I had 'won' this (apparent) "classic rare old scooter"

I still have no idea of what it was really. or if its all there. But I am now £206 lighter and own a "Very rare Manurhin Concorde scooter"...... and I need to find a way to tell my wife.